Our Enemy's Enemy
by Adriana Snow
Summary: Kate Stewart hadn't been expecting a woman to fall out of the sky. She'd expected it to be an alien trying to invade the planet. She could have handled an alien.River Song is not what she seems. But she also seems to be the only chance the Earth has of not going up in flames. River/12. (pre)Kate/Osgood.
1. Dropping In

"Greyhound 6 to Greyhound 1. Yellow zone YCC6 has been cleared of civilians. Maintaining a 5km perimeter around distortion hot zone," a voice said through the radio at Kate Stewart's hip.

She continued to cling to the passenger side door handle with one hand as the black van careened over the bumpy terrain on its way towards the time-space distortion UNIT's sensors had picked up less than half an hour ago. With her other hand, she struggled to unclip her radio from her belt.

"Very good, Greyhound 6," she responded. "Greyhound 1 in route. Any updates on the distortion readings, Greyhound 2?" she asked.

"Erm, no," Osgood's familiar voice replied. "Energy readings still increasing at a steady level. If my calculations are accurate, whatever is coming through is going to be arriving in 7 to 10 minutes."

"Well, then, I guess I'll be just in time for the party," Kate said. If they'd been taking actual roads or going at anywhere near a reasonable speed, it would take at least 10 minutes to get to their destination, but at this rate, they'd be there in 5. If they didn't crash into a tree, that is.

She was hoping all of this fuss was unnecessary, but she wasn't planning on it. Whatever this thing was, it was putting out a lot of energy, not to mention the readings were weird. The only time she knew of where there had been similar readings was when what people thought were ghosts and had ended up being Cybermen had broken through from another dimension. That situation had ended with hundreds dead and an entire organization being destroyed. Kate was not taking any chances.

The van screeched to a stop next to a line of three soldiers in full gear. Kate was out of the door in seconds.

"Ma'am," one of the soldiers greeted her.

"Lieutenant," she acknowledged the woman, "are we ready for this?"

"As ready as we can be ma'am. We have a Beta-Luther formation around this clearing. We could only get 27 soldiers out here in time, but more are coming. Those will stay 10km away so they can try to contain the situation in the event of a disaster scenario.

"Good. Thank you Lieutenant Mansoor." Just as the words left her mouth, a blue streak of light crackled through the air near the center of the clearing. "Now I think it's time to get in position."

Lieutenant Mansoor relayed the order over the radio and reminded them to hold their fire until ordered to shoot.

"Greyhound 2 to Greyhound 1," Ossgood's voice crackled through the radio. "energy reading indicate whatever it is will be her in 5, 4, 3, 2…"

Kate felt every person in the field collectively tense as there was a sizzle of electricity. A figure fell from about 5 feet in the air and hit the ground with a "thud."

"1."

It was quite enough that Kate could hear the figure mutter a curse (in English, she noted) even from her position about 20 meters away. It moved, rolling so it was face up. Thirty or so guns clicked at the movement. The figure (it at least appeared to be human) froze.

"You just fell through a time-space distortion into my jurisdiction." Kate broke the silence. "We're not going to hurt you unless you give us a reason to. However, as you can see, we do have the tools to hurt you if necessary. So, I suggest you tell me what you're doing here."

It sat up slowly to look at her. It appeared to be a human woman, perhaps a bit older than herself. Her hair looked as though she'd been repeatedly shocked with electricity, standing on edge. In fact, little sparks of blue light still seemed to be jumping from her curls. "I would," she informed Kate. "But I'm not precisely sure where "here" is."

"England, Earth, 21st century," she didn't bother with anything more specific than that. "Who are you and where are you from?" Kate walked toward the woman as she spoke, motioning for a couple of the soldiers to flank her.

"That's a bit complicated really," the woman said sounding almost amused.

"Simplify it." She gave a hand motion and the soldier at her right holstered his gun.

The woman sighed. Kate was right in front of her now, staring down at her. She slowly moved to stand up and the soldier who still had a gun shifted anxiously. Kate waved her off and the soldier settled a bit.

When the woman had gotten to her feet, she offered her hand to Kate. "River Song, the moon, 51st century," the woman copied her tone from earlier. Kate took the woman's hand firmly just as the man at her side lunged forward to stick a needle in the crook of her neck. Song's reaction was a few moments too late to stop him from drugging her, but her free arm still slammed into his face, sending him to the ground. She tried to yank away, but Kate held firm. Before Kate could register what was happening, there was a flash of silver. Only Kate's quick reflexes kept her from being slashed by the knife in Song's free hand. She managed to catch the woman's arm on her second attempt and twisted. Song kept ahold of the knife longer than most people could with the fast acting sedative roaring though her system, but she eventually ended up dropping it. Kate watched as the woman's eyes started to lose focus, but there was also a bit of wild panic in them that almost made her feel bad about the drug. Song's knees buckled and Kate went to her knees to keep ahold of her.

"It's just a sedative," Kate felt compelled to inform her. "It won't hurt you."

In response, Song glared at Kate, her eyes suddenly focusing again for just a moment. She jerked forward and bit Kate's wrist while trying to pull her arm away. Kate hissed in pain, but if she let go every time some creature bit her, she'd have been dead a long time ago. It only took a few more seconds for the woman's jaw to loosen as her body listed to the side. Kate waited a few moments before detangling herself from the now unconscious River Song. The rest of the soldiers had come closer during the violence and were barley a few meters away.

"Take her back to HQ," she instructed, holding her wrist. She started walking back to the van she'd arrived in, "and check her for more weapons," she order over her shoulder.


	2. Leaving With a Bang

"They said you were injured," Kate looked up, startled by the intensity in her, usually rather docile, assistance's voice. She'd just sat down at her desk to rest for a moment before grabbing the papers she needed from her office. "Sorry," Osgood blushed a bit when Kate jumped.

"It's okay," she smiled at her friend and held up her wrist to show off the bite mark. "Just a scratch and this one won't even turn me into a space werewolf. Probably."

Osgood grinned a bit. That particular situation had been when they'd both been lab techs at the bottom of the UNIT food chain. It felt like eons ago, but it had really only been a few years.

"Here, let me see," Osgood walked over and set the first aid kit she'd brought on Kate's desk. Kate obediently offered her wrist for the woman's perusal. She studied the other woman's face as she pulled disinfectant and bandages from the kit. Her assistant frowned at the bite mark as she cleaned it, a little wrinkle appearing between her brows. The disinfectant was a product Osgood had developed herself and killed most known pathogens including extraterrestrial ones. Her assistant made sure to cover the entire wound before carefully wrapping it in a bandage to make sure it stayed fully coated for at least 3 hours.

"There we go, all better," Osgood told her with a smile, pushing her glasses back into place as they'd slipped down her nose a bit.

"Thanks." Kate smiled back, a bit amused with how painstakingly Osgood had dealt with the little bite marks. Her friend could really be a mother hen. It was actually rather cute. "So, do we know anything about our surprise visitor yet?"

"Not yet. They took fingerprints and blood samples, but I'm still running them. So far, she seems to have pretty much normal human DNA other than a few abnormalities which could be explained by her being from a different century." She paused. "I don't believe she bit you!"

"Well I had just drugged her against her will," Kate pointed out with a shrug.

"How'd she have time to bite you after the sedative was in her system? She should have been out of it almost instantly. Do I need to revamp the formula?" Osgood inquired.

"No. The formulas good. I think she's just stubborn." Kate leaned back in her chair with a sigh.

"Long day?"

"I'd just been about to fall into bed when I got the phone call." She looked up at Osgood who was now leaning on her desk. She was wearing one of her long, white lab coats, but Kate could see one of the wrinkled tie-dye T-shirt she favored after business hours peeking out from under the collar. "They don't pay us enough for this."

"Oh but we get those complimentary vacations to the Gobi desert." Osgood said cheerfully.

Kate chuckled. "Yeah. Fun times." She sat up and looked at her watch. "I should probably go. I've been gone too long." Kate grabbed the papers she was originally there for from her desk.

"Yeah. The blood and fingerprint analysis is probably almost done by now."

"Keep me posted on that."

"Yes, ma'am."

"How many weapons did you find on her?" Kate asked.

The man shook his head. "An entire arsenal. I don't even know what half the things do."

"But you're sure you got all of it?"

"No idea where else she could hide anything."

"Well that's certainly one thing I'm going to have to ask her about." The other things including how she had created such a time distortion with just a vortex manipulator. They'd found the piece of future tech strapped to her wrist, though it seemed to be absolutely fried. They'd found no other known time travel devices on her, so, they figured whatever had happened to the vortex manipulator must have caused the disruption. Her mobile beeped. "Yes?" She ask into the phone.

"Kate," there was an odd lilt to Osgood's tone that Kate couldn't place.

"Yes, what is it?"

"We got a match back on the fingerprints." She informed her. "Um. Remember when Harkness gave us access to some time agent files after the Peterson-Leber debacle?" Yes she did. It had been a little bit before she'd taken over as the head of UNIT. UNIT officials had detained a time agent who'd been hunting down a terrorist from the 50th century and, worse, had let said terrorist out of custody to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting 21st century. Though Harkness wasn't UNITs biggest fan, he decided to share some of his knowledge on time agents and the worst criminals up until he left the agency himself in the early 51st century. He said it was more out of self-preservation than anything. "Well," Osgood continued, "she's in the files."

"She's a time agent?" Kate asked hopefully.

"Unfortunately not. She's considered one of the most violent criminals of the 51st century. She was sentenced to 12 thousand consecutive life sentences at the top security prison in the universe."

"What on Earth did she do?"

"She's an assassin for some fanatic religious group. Among other things..." She hesitated. "Among other things she was convicted for the murder of the Time Lord known as the Doctor."

Kate didn't speak for a moment.

"Kate?" Osgood spoke from the other side of the phone. "I'm sorry. I knew how much he meant to your father."

"Are you sure he really...?"

"There was an investigation, eye witnesses, and she confessed. From the description, it seems to have been the face you met a while back."

Kate exhaled slowly. She didn't know how to process this information. She's only met the man a couple of times, but her father had told her a lot about him and she'd read all of his UNIT files. From what she'd seen and been told, he'd been an amazing man and one of her father's best friends.

"Kate?" Her friend's voice was worried.

"I guess we'll find a way to contact the proper authorities about her whereabouts." She wasn't exactly sure how to do that considering the proper authorities wouldn't be born for centuries. "I'm going to talk to her first though."

"Are you sure that's such a good idea?" Osgood asked. "You're a bit emotionally involved."

"I need to know Osgood."

"Yes, well, be careful. She's got to be good if she was able to... She's got to be good."

"Don't worry. I've got it under control."

"Miss Trapper," Kate said. The woman in question jumped at the sound of her own name.

"Miss Stewart, um ma'am," she stuttered a bit.

"What are you doing here?" Kate asked. Here being just outside the interrogation room holding River Song.

"They, um, they told me that, um, well..." Kate gritted her teeth, waiting for the woman to spit it out. She didn't know what Trapper was doing working for UNIT if she couldn't even speak to her superior without tripping over herself. She'd worked with the woman twice and each time Kate was barely able to contain her annoyance long enough to get any work done. "T-they said you need, a, well, a psych evaluator. You- they s-said you were going to interrogate a, a possible m-murderer and you needed someone who could, um, recognize body language." Her Scottish accent was barley even recognizable with all the stuttering. "So, they sent me and now I'm here. If you need me that is?" She had wanted someone with a psych evaluator background to help her with the interrogation as she wasn't sure about Song's mental state, but she didn't want someone who could barely look Kate in the eyes. River Song could probably rip her to shreds with a well-placed scowl. Kate sighed.

"Yeah, come on," she motioned to the woman moving to the door of the interrogation room. She scurried after her. "Is she awake?" She asked the man guarding the door.

"She woke up about ten minutes ago. She should be awake enough to talk."

"Good." Kate took a moment to gather herself and then opened the door to the interrogation room.

At first glance, River Song didn't look like a cold blooded killer. She was still in the cloths she'd arrived in, a dark blue blouse and jeans. However, they'd removed the jacket full of weapons. Her hair was still as crazy as it had been when she fell into the 21st century. She looked up when they entered the room, her eyes sparked with recognition and maybe a little resentment when they landed on her face, but her eyes didn't have the cold sparkle she was used when looking at a killer. She looked like a normal woman, if a bit annoyed.

"Is this how you welcome everyone to your planet?" She asked rattling her handcuffs a bit.

"Just the ones who fall through strange cracks in time." She answered. "We haven't been properly introduce. I'm the head of the Unified Intelligence Taskforce. My name is Kate Lethbridge-Stewart." She didn't usually use her full name anymore. Though it was no longer a secret who's daughter she was, now that she'd made it clear to everyone in UNIT that she could stand on her own, she still usually just said Stewart out of habit. However, if this woman had been sent to assassinate the Doctor, she might know of her dad.

Songs eyes flickered a bit at the name, but she didn't seem too bothered.

"My associate and I have a few questions for you." She waved Trapper into the room. The woman nervously danced in behind her.

Songs eyes flashed to the new person and she sat up just a bit strainer.

"Hi," Trapper said swallowing a bit. When Song didn't acknowledge her greeting, she walked forward a few steps and offered her hand. "Missy Trapper." Song just looked at the offered hand. "Oh right," she blushed a bit when she remembered Song's hands were cuffed to her chair.

Song looked her up and down for a moment. "Missy." She repeated skeptically. Then she smiled, though something about the smile sent warning bells off in Kate's head. "Nice to meet you. I'm River Song."

Trapper pulled out one of the chairs across from Song and sat on the edge of it. She looked back at Kate, who just leaned against the wall behind her and jerked her head to tell the woman to continue. "We, um, ran your finger prints through our database while you were, well, unconscious."

"Really now?" Song inquired leaning back in her chair casually as though she weren't handcuffed in a secret military base. "Find anything interesting?"

Trapper swallowed. "Well, we found your criminal records."

"Quite a collection isn't it," she looked proud of that fact.

"One of those records," Kate cut in from her position against the wall. "Indicated that you were indicted for the murder of a man called the Doctor."

Song looked at Kate and then turned her attention back to Trapper. "Yes," she confirmed with a ghost of a smirk.

"Why?" She looked back at Kate and, suddenly, that cold murderous spark that Kate had noted was missing from her eyes was there. Her smirk grew into a toothy smile.

"Because I did it."

"Why?" 

"That was my purpose." She told Kate, her tone flat. Kate felt goosebumps travel up her arms. Her well-trained fight or flight response kicked in at the sound of her voice or maybe the look in her eyes. Something in Kate was telling her to run from this woman. "I was bred and conditioned for one purpose. To identify, isolate, and eliminate Time Lords." She slowly turned back to Trapper leaning forward to meet her eyes. "Do you honestly believe I can't tell when one is sitting right in front of me?"

There was a pause. "I don't know what you mean" Trapper responded, but her tone was different. It wasn't the nervous, stuttering tone she usually had. It was smooth and lilting, mocking. Kate stood up a bit straighter, confused, but sure whatever shift had just occurred in the woman was not a good sign.

"Oh, please," Song rolled her eyes. "Missy? Really? How did he ever fall for your pseudonyms?"

"Hmmm. Pretty and smart." Trapper leaned back in her chair and tapped her lips with her index finger. Something was very wrong.

Songs eyes flickered to Kate for just a second, but then went back to watching Trapper. "You're the Master." Everything in Kate froze at the name. She knew the stories of the Master, everything he'd done or tried to do to the Earth; sometimes he was only just stopped by the Doctor. How could meek little Trapper be the Master.

"Yes," Trapper, the Master, Missy, confirmed with a lopsided smile. "And you're The Doctor's murderer. Now how did that happen?"

"Easily enough," Song answered. "I shot him."

Missy giggled and if she'd thought River Song's voice had given her goosebumps, it was nothing compared to that sound. She felt herself reach for the gun that should have been on her hip, but she hadn't brought it with her to the interrogation. "You obviously don't know the Doctor if you think that killed him," Missy said.

"Let me rephrase." Song said, her face eerily impassive. "I shot him. Waited until he started to regenerate and then shot him again before he could change. Then I burnt his body and sunk it to the bottom of a lake. Tell me. Would that kill a Time Lord?" While most of her speech had been emotionlessly informative, the last two sentences seemed more like a threat.

The mocking smile slid off Missy's face. She almost looked worried for a moment, which was even more troubling for Kate. But, then, she was back to her slightly mad grin.

"Oh, please, do you know how many times I thought I killed him just for him to show back up at the most inopportune times?"

"Yes, I do in fact." Song informed her. "I've studied all of your plots and analyzed your mistakes."

"And what were my mistakes?" Missy seemed almost affronted.

"You didn't actually want to kill him. Not really. At least not permanently. It was a game for you and a game is no fun without an opponent. Part of you wanted him to survive. I had no such qualms." She stared into Missy's eyes without flinching.

Missy blinked. "You really did, didn't you."

One of Songs eyebrows rose almost amused. "Yes."

"I've got to say. I am impressed."

"I did not do it to impress. I did it simply because that was my purpose." The words were flat, emotionless like a machine.

Kate didn't know how to get out of this situation. She was a doorway away from the cavalry at her beck-and-call, but she couldn't think of a way to get there without drawing attention to herself. She knew what The Master was capable of. He or she was psychotic, unpredictable, and wasn't afraid to kill everything that got into her way. She wasn't however sure what River Song was capable, but the mechanical way she had spoken of murder chilled Kate to her bones. Worse, if she didn't know better, she'd say the expression on Missy's face showed was just as terrified of River Song as Kate herself was.

But then Missy's face smoothed out. "Well then Miss Song, how would you like a new purpose?"

"Are you planning on giving me one?" Song asked with what could pass for interest.

"Well I'd had a little plan to burn this entire world to ash."

"Oh, really?"

"Well I didn't infiltrate this pesky little organization for no reason. I have it on good authority that they've come across a machine that could incinerate their planet and they don't even know it. Of course now that my covers been blown, I need to move my plan up bit. You have potential. You could join me. Blowing up planets is even more fun than you'd think."

"That's a very nice offer, Missy," Song said with a smile. "My only problem with it is, while I'm a psychopath there are in fact two things in the universe I care about. Those two things are my parents. Who, unfortunately for you, happen to live on Earth in the 21st century." For the first time since they'd mentioned the Doctor, real emotion appeared on Song's face: anger. "I'm afraid, I'm going to have to stop your plan."

"Well that's unfortunate," Missy pouted getting to her feet. "You could have been useful." She took what appeared to be an advanced looking gun out of her lab coat, but before she could aim the weapon, Song was over the table, somehow having undone the handcuffs.

The look of surprise on Missy's face was almost comical as the device was knocked out of her hand. Song wasted no time in slamming her fist into the woman's face. Missy went down, but lashed out trying to kick the other woman. Song jumped out of the way, but Missy had grabbed another weapon out of her pocket. Song scrambled out of the way of the blast as Missy sprang up. Whatever the weapon was, it was able to blast a three-centimeter hole in the cement wall. She shot it again as Song kicked her in the stomach causing the shot to go wild. This time it was Kate springing out of the way. She dived toward the previously dropped gun and grabbed it as Song disarmed Missy again.

Having heard the gun shot, the guard opened the door just as Song kicked Missy again sending her flying into the man. She scrambled off the dazed man and Kate shot at her as soon as she was sure she wouldn't accidentally hit her soldier, deciding that taking down the psychopath that planned to burn the earth took priority over the psychopath who had vowed not to do so. She managed to graze her target's arm. Song hopped over the dazed guard who looked at his commander in confusion.

"The black haired one. We're trying to shoot the black haired one!" she informed him even as she herself jumped over him.

The two women were fighting over something when suddenly Song was blasted away from Missy landing between Kate and the guard. She rolled to her feet.

"Well, this had been fun, but I really must be going now!" Missy yelled pushing a button on the device in her hand. There was a huge bang and Kate felt something slam into her side. Her head hit the concrete and the world went black.

River hit the floor hard as she was blasted away from Missy. She would defiantly be bruised later, but, for now, she jumped to her feet only to see Missy getting ready to hit a button on her device. Bomb, she thought instantly. She was a few seconds ahead of the two humans in the room partially because she had probably been exposed to more explosives than they had and partially because her brain processed things just a little bit faster than most humans.

This was going to be bad.

She mentally categorized the room and made a decision just as Missy was about to set off the explosion. She round kicked the soldier next to her so he fell under the doorway which would hopefully protect him from the soon to be falling building. In the same movement, she lunged at Kate Stewart. The explosion happened while she was midair. She bowled into Kate just as the roof started to come down. The woman's head smacked the ground, probably giving her a concussion, but River didn't have enough time to worry about that. She covered the woman's body with hers the best she could before she felt something fall on top of her. She gritted her teeth and moved one arm to protect her own head. The other gripped Kate Stewart. Then, she waited.

She felt something else fall on top of her. Something stabbed her in the thigh sending pain radiating through her. She could hear more things falling, crashing into each other. Something must have caught fire because she could now smell smoke. Hopefully, the fire wouldn't reach them. Another object fell heavily onto her foot and that must have caused just enough damage to her system because she heard a little beep. She gripped onto Kate harder as she felt the device she'd had implanted in the back of her neck activate.

'Somewhere with a breathable atmosphere. Somewhere with a breathable atmosphere,' she thought as she felt reality stretch a bit around them. She closed her eyes as she felt herself yanked into the vortex.


	3. Concussions and Cows

**AN:** Just a disclaimer. I know nothing about concussions or medical things in general. I used the internet...

Osgood was in her lab when she felt the explosion shake the building. The alarms started blaring and she could tell her fellow scientists were starting to panic at the sound. She made sure her inhaler was in her pocket and got to her feet. "Out," she raised her voice so the started technicians could hear her over the noise and pointed to the door farthest from where she thought the vibrations had come from. "Go on, out." They started scampering toward the door at her order and she followed shouting out directions, as she knew the building much better than any of them did. Once they hit daylight, her colleges gladly hustled to get behind the line the soldiers had already made. Osgood, however, searched the line of soldiers. She narrowed in on the location with the most activity and headed that way. The soldiers let her through without comment.

"General Hughes, what happened?"

"Not sure," the man turned to her. "There was an explosion in the west wing. The top two floors collapsed into the basement."

A bit of panic rose into her throat as she glanced over at the destruction. "Kate was in the West Wing basement."

The general looked a bit worried at that himself. "We'll send in a crew to search for survivors as soon as I'm sure more of the building won't collapse on top of the rescuers." Osgood wanted to tell him to send someone in to search for Kate now, but bit her tongue. Getting irrational wouldn't help the situation or Kate.

She turned away from him so he could go back to instructing the soldiers. Most of the employees had evacuated the rest of the building. She watched as the last of them exited the North Wing and moved away from the building. She tuned out the sound of the general barking orders in favor of counting her own breaths to keep her panic at bay. She felt for her inhaler; she didn't need it just yet, but it helped just to know it was there.

She snapped out of her trance a few moments later when there was a commotion near the front of the collapsed part of the building. A woman limped out of the building and soldiers were immediately there to help her. Osgood met Hughes' eyes and they both started toward the scene at the same time.

The woman was blubbering and sniffing loudly. Osgood recognized her from when they'd been introduced one of the few times Kate had worked with her, but she'd never spent much time with her herself.

"Missy," she addressed the woman who was leaning rather heavily on the soldier next to her for having no discernible injuries. She looked up at her with slightly wet eyes.

"What happened, miss?" Asked General Hughes.

The woman made a weird whinny sound and Osgood almost bit through her own tongue.

"Can we get a medic over here?" Hughes yelled back at the troops behind them. He and the other soldier helped her away from the building with Osgood following behind them. They sat her on the back of a truck and a man brought a medical bag up to them.

"I'm going to go get the troops looking for survivors," Hughes told Osgood. She nodded back.

Osgood studied Missy as the medic dealt with her. Missy Trapper was supposedly a well-qualified psych evaluator, but according to Kate and some others who had worked with her, she wasn't very helpful overall. She was jumpy to a ridiculous degree and never seemed to be able to get a full sentence out of her mouth. The one, half a conversation they'd had left Osgood convinced that at least some of it had to be an act. No one could be that nervous and not keel over. She was described by most everyone who'd met her as mousy, but Osgood had not been convinced. There was something slightly off with the way she behaved. Osgood knew mice: had been one for most of her life. Missy was something else.

Osgood quelled her emotions and went over to sit next to the other woman on the back of the truck. "Missy," she said as gently as possible. "Can you tell me what happened?"

The woman gave a dramatic little sob. "Oh, it was so horrible!" she said.

"I'm sure it was," Osgood replied trying to not let any of her agitation color her tone. She reached over to rub her back. "But we need to know what happened. Will you tell us?"

She peered at Osgood from under her lashes seeming to analyze her. The look seemed far too calculating for Osgood's liking. She made an effort to make herself look as unthreatening as possible.

"Miss S-Stewart and I, w-we were interrogating that h-horrible woman, R-river Song." Missy actually physically shuddered a bit at the name. "a-and she got loose somehow and, and…" she trailed off, sobbing into her hands. Osgood didn't usually have many violent urges, but she really wanted to shake this woman until her head rattled. She shouldn't be this agitated. The woman had just been through trauma and Osgood would usually be sympathetic, but there was something wrong with the way she was reacting. It was too overdone, too dramatic, fake. That, or Osgood was just too worried about her boss to act like a kind, rational human being at the moment. One of the two.

Osgood gritted her teeth. "It's okay, it's okay," she said patting the woman's back. "What did she do?"

"S-she had a bomb. When I-I saw it I r-ran. I don't know how I got out of it alive." Osgood looked at the collapsed building. She didn't know how the woman got out alive either. She shoved the thought that if it was doubtful this woman lived, it was probably doubtful anyone else did. It wasn't time to wallow, it was time to focus. The medic seemed to finish his examination of Missy and packed up his bag telling her everything seemed fine, but to tell someone if she felt strange later.

"Thank you for your help, Missy," she replied. "I'm going to go tell the general." She stood up and caught up with the medic.

"She doesn't seem to have many injuries for someone who's just been in an explosion, does she?" she commented.

He looked over at her seemingly just as confused by it as her. "Unless I missed something, she's not injured at all. She has a little dirt on her and was limping, but nothing is wrong as far as I could tell."

"Interesting," Osgood commented, letting him walk away and heading toward General Hughes.

"General," she called. He dismissed the soldier he was speaking to and turned toward her. "May I make a suggestion?"

"Of course, ma'am."

"Pick people you trust to search the basement for survivors, discreetly, and if you find anyone alive tell no one but me."

He looked at her slightly surprised. "Is there something I should know about?"

"Just a precaution."

He searched her eyes for a moment and then nodded. "Understood ma'am. I'll keep you informed."

"Thank you." She glanced over to Missy again who was practically draped over one of the soldiers. It was just a precaution. 

Kate regained consciousness slowly. What had happened? Her head ached and something was on top of her. She blinked open her eyes and saw a blur of green. Grass? What was so much grass doing in Unit Headquarters? She moved her head to the side and her vision fuzzed a bit. It was extremely bright; she had to close her eyes after a moment as nausea overtook her. After gathering herself, she opened her eyes again. There was a mass of gold obstructing part of her vision, but beyond that, she could see there was a field of grass in front of her. Not Unit HQ. She turned her attention to the gold mass. The sun glinted off the fluffy mass so much that it made Kate's eyes hurt. Suddenly, the mass moved. There was a groan from somewhere above her and the thing on top of her rolled off.

"Shit," a woman's voice commented. Kate rolled and sat up. Her head spun at the movement, but after a few seconds, her vision focused enough for her to make out the person in front of her. River Song. Right. She thought back to before she'd been knocked unconscious. The Master was a woman, who now went by Missy apparently, and, consistent with the files she'd read on the Timelord, she wanted to burn the Earth for no reason other than she could. Song didn't like the idea of a burned down earth and had attempted to stop her. Missy had pushed a button. She thinks there had been an explosion. How did she get here?

"Where are we?" Kate asked.

"No idea. Some field," Song answered unhelpfully.

"How did we get here?"

"My last resort."

"Are you always this unhelpful?" The woman didn't answer, instead getting onto her knees and pushing herself to her feet. She bent down and grabbed something out of her boot.

"How did you hide that gun?" Kate asked, shocked. She knew her soldiers wouldn't be dumb enough to not look in the woman's boots.

"Perception filter," she answered simply, storing the gun at her waist and hiding it with her shirt. She offered her had to Kate who took it grudgingly. She was pulled to her feet with surprising strength.

The entire world tilted and she probably would have toppled over if the other woman hadn't stepped forward to keep her on her feet.

"You seem to have a concussion," Song informed her.

"Yeah, getting that," Kate spat rubbing her forehead. She'd had her fair share of concussions over the years. It was in the job description. She probably needed to take some aspirin, lie down in a dark room, and not move for days, or, better yet, go to the hospital. Unfortunately, she didn't seem to have time for that.

"We need to find out where we are and get help. Can you walk?" Song asked.

Kate gritted her teeth and pushed the woman away a bit. "I'm fine. Let's go." Song watched her face for a few moments and then nodded. The dizziness had subsided a bit, but Kate still felt like she could pass out any moment as they made their way across the field to the dirt road. Her companion eyed her silently as they walked.

"How did we get here?" Kate repeated her question from before, needing both information and something to concentrate on.

"Experimental time-travel technology. I swiped it from a lab in 5236. It's implanted in the back of my neck and keyed to take me to a random space-time coordinate if I'm injured." She answered.

"Interesting." It took a few moments for logic to catch up with her. "By a random space-time coordinate, you do mean a random, viable, space-time coordinate?"

"That's why it was experimental."

Kate stopped in the road. "I'm a bit concussed at the moment so I might not completely understand what your saying. Are you telling me there was over a 99% chance of us ending up in the vacuum of space?"

"I had a theory that my unique heritage would allow me to give the device some direction."

"And you decided to test your theory while taking me along for the ride?" She glared at the woman. She wondered what exactly the unique heritage was. Perhaps the abnormalities in her blood Osgood had been talking about.

"You would have been no worse for wear than if I'd left you in an exploding building," Song responded, unrepentant. If Kate was feeling better she may have decked her, but she wasn't sure how well her balance and aim would be at the moment. "I think," Song said thoughtfully ignoring her ire, "we may actually be on Earth still."

"How do you know?" Kate asked, curious. She had never actually been on an alien planet (alien spaceships, sure, but it was an entirely different thing) and she didn't know how one would go about discerning where they were.

Song gave a little hop. "I'm not as good as some people at telling just from the atmosphere, but the gravity is about right and the air has the right composition. Plus, I'm pretty sure that's a cow."

Kate turned her head and, sure enough, there was a cow watching them walk past. "Good enough for me. So Earth. When?"

"Well, there seems to be a town up there. If they burn us at the stake for wearing trousers, I'll have a rough estimate." Kate gave her an unamused look and she grinned back with a sparkle in her eye.

The first building they came to was an inn on the outskirts of the little town. Kate's companion stopped when she saw the sign.

"Well," she chucked a bit. "It looks like my luck just got better."

"What, why?" There didn't seem to be anything particularly strange about the inn. It was three stories high with a plain wooded door and some flowers in the windows. The sign declared it was Whitman's Inn.

"See that emblem on the sign," Song asked pointing to the carving in the wood. To Kate it just looked like some kind of bird and a few wavy lines. "It's the image of a Koluck bird, a genetic experiment from the 25th century. In 3052, the time agency decided to make it the law that that symbol be displayed at any household owned by civilian time-travelers. Helpful for time agents. Confused archeologists for centuries." Kate stored that information away for future reference. "Hopefully they'll have some form of medicine that doesn't involve leeches."

With that, she led the way to the inn's door leaving Kate with the choice to follow her or to go wandering on her own with a concussion in some unknown time.

There was a woman behind a counter on the far side of the room when Kate entered the inn. She didn't look up when they came in, too engrossed in reading a book.

"Excuse me," Song said once she was at the counter. The woman jumped.

"Oh, sorry," she said hastily closing her book and storing it under the counter. Kate wondered what exactly was in that book. "Can I help you? Do you need a room?"

"Do you take Melanisian credit cards?" Song asked.

The girl blinked. "Oh, I see. Sure, yeah, just give me your…" she stopped, her eyes widening. "Wait a second. You're River Song!"

Song's expression didn't change, but Kate saw her tense and her hand immediately went to the gun at her waist. "Yes. I am," she said pleasantly.

The girl beamed, completely unaware of the dangerous situation she was in. "My grandmother was in The Library when it closed." Kate didn't know what that meant, but she watched as the tension drained from Song's shoulders. Her hand fell away from the gun. "You're the reason I got into archeology!" the girl continued.

"You're an archeologist?" Song asked. Her eyes had softened a bit, her lips curling up into the first genuine smile Kate has seen on her face.

"As soon as I pass my next semester I'll have my graduate degree," she replied proudly.

"What university?"

"Luna, of course," the girl responded. "I'm Professor Arjun Kumar graduate assistant for this field school. He was your student, wasn't he?"

"Actually, when I'm from, he is my student," Song informed her. "He's currently working on his undergraduate degree."

Confusion flashed across her face briefly, but then disappeared. "Oh, right, you're a time traveler. Professor Kumar has told us many stories about your escapades. Speaking of, what exactly are you doing here?"

"We had a bit of an accident actually. You don't happen to have any 51st century medical supplies do you?" River asked.

"Are you injured?" The girl asked, her brows drawing together in concern.

"Just some scrapes," she reassured the girl with a smile. This smile, Kate noted, was a lot less genuine than the one she had been giving the girl earlier. It occurred to Kate, then, that Song had been in the collapsing building as well. She hadn't seemed too worse for wear walking here, but Kate had been admittedly distracted. Song had said the device that had brought them here was keyed to move her when she was injured to a certain degree. Kate eyed her companion closely. There was a bit of tension in the other woman's shoulders and she seemed to be putting more of her weight on one leg than the other, but she didn't seem hurt enough to warrant an escape using untested, easily deadly, time travel. At least, she wasn't showing it. "However, if you have something that'll take care of concussions for my friend and some bandages and disinfectant for us both, we'd be very grateful."

"Of course. I'll get you both set up in some rooms too. Free of charge of course."

"Thank you, very much," Song said the soft, genuine, smile back in place.

"Well it's the least I can do, isn't it?" She grabbed a few keys off a hook behind her and motioned them to follow her up the stairs. "Let me get Ruman, his parents own a doctor's office and he's going into medical school once he gets his anthropology degree. He'll patch you up."

"I'd rather patch myself up actually, if you'll just give me supplies." Song said just a bit tersely. The girl either didn't notice or didn't think it was wise to comment on the woman's slight change of tone, but it gave Kate pause. What exactly was Song hiding?

"Hey, Victoria, have you seen the..." The young man trailed off when he saw Song, his eyes bugging out a bit. "Professor Song!" He exclaimed much as someone would when meeting their favorite celebrity or goddess.

"Uh, hello?"

"Ruman Matis, we met after you gave that speech to the Crazien Intrastar Committee on the effects of the Zion-Sunstar trade treaty on the human industry in the late 22nd century. It was amazing!"

"Hmm, well I haven't actually giving that lecture as of yet. But it's nice to know beforehand that it will be a success," Song replied recovering from his enthusiastic greeting with an amused smirk. He gave her a confused look. "Time travel, dear."

"Oh," he deflated a bit, but perked right back up, "have you wrote your book on the late 20th, early 21st century premier Earth defensive groups? Because, I just finished reading it and I'd love to talk-"

"For goodness sakes, Ruman, lay off her for a moment. She's just got here and she's injured." Victoria scolded him.

"You're injured?" He asked and suddenly the energetic puppy dog expression he'd sported since he'd laid eyes on her transformed into a concerned, but professional one.

Song gave a more grimace than a smile this time. "I'm fine, just need some supplies and I can get myself fixed up."

Ruman looked like he was about to argue.

"Kate, here, on the other hand," she plowed on, "has a concision that you should probably look at. She lost consciousness for a few minutes, so it's probably bad." He turned his attention to Kate at that. Kate inwardly rolled her eyes at how easily he fell for the diversion, but willingly answered all of his questions about how bad her head hurt and how dizzy she'd been. Despite the fact that she knew Song had sicked him on her to distract him from whatever she was hiding from them, Kate knew she needed medical attention.

"You should probably lie down," he suggested after hearing her symptoms. Which was an A plus idea as far as Kate was concerned. "Victoria would you get the medical kit? It's upstairs in Professor Kumar's office."

"Sure," Victoria responded handing him one of the keys in her hand. "That's for room 2." She handed the other to Song. "And room 3 for you. Bathroom's down the hall and there's some extra cloths in that closet if you need any."

"Thank you very much, Victoria," Kate heard Song respond as she was ushered toward room 2.

"Alright, sit down please," Ruman told her closing the door behind him. She didn't like that as she'd rather be able to keep Song in sight, but did as he asked. She wouldn't be any good if she didn't do something to fix her head a bit.

"You have a few cuts on your face and your nose looks like it's going to bruise," he informed her.

"Well, from what I remember, I took a nose dive into a concrete floor. So, I guess that isn't exactly a surprise," she responded dryly.

"Are you injured anywhere else that you know of?" he asked. She hadn't really had the time or presence of mind to assess herself until now. She'd been in an explosion and remembered something falling on top of her, but it was nothing compared to the couple of other times she'd almost gotten blown up. No bones felt broken and nothing seemed to be bleeding.

"I don't think so. I'm a little sore, but nothing major seems wrong."

"Well, that's good. I'll still do a medical scan just to make sure, but you don't look too worse for wear."

He had her lie back then and she closed her eyes briefly. She was extremely tired, but going to sleep probably wasn't a good idea with a fresh concussion so, she propped herself back up on her elbows to look at him.

"So, you know, River Song?" She asked both to keep herself occupied and because of her own curiosity. He perked up considerably at the question.

"I mean, not really. We only met briefly once, but I know all about her," he gushed.

"I've only just met her myself. I don't really know much about her." She informed him, hoping he'd take the bait.

"Well, she's the best archeologist in the universe, but you probably already know that. She used to be a professor at Luna until about 20 years ago, but she still does guest lectures sometimes. Though, I guess the one you've met might still be teaching. The one from my time is working to establish laws on the integration of younger sentient populations into the universal markets and government while preserving their individual culture and helping to lessen cross-cultural conflict." He sounded like he was quoting a news article. "So basically she's trying to stop more powerful planets from taking advantage of ones who are just starting to have contact with the outside universe. And protect them from invasions." That would certainly be a nice thing to have in the 21st century, but, seeing as River Song was apparently trying to pass it in the 51st century, she wasn't going to hold her breath.

"It seems like quite the endeavor." Kate may not know much about the 51st century, but she knew enough about politics when it came to big business and populations not as exposed to capitalism. She imagined the same rules applied.

"Oh, people have been trying to get laws like that in place for centuries, but Professor Song is actually getting somewhere. If anyone can do it, it's her." If Song wasn't a self-confessed murderer Kate would say she must be a saint for getting any headway with that type of deal. "Especially since she has the backing of the entire Lux cooperation after The Library." He said it as though she should know what "The Library" was. Not wanting him to figure out something was wrong and stop talking to her, she chose her next words carefully.

"Victoria mentioned that her grandmother had been in The Library."

"Oh, yeah, that's a story she likes to tell. She wouldn't have ever existed if Professor Song hadn't gone to the library."

"Yeah, amazing wasn't it," she hedged.

"Defiantly amazing. 4,022 people missing for 100 years. Most people would have ran when they figured out they were surrounded by flesh eating shadows, but not River Song. She saved them all, almost died for it, but it all turned out okay,"

"Yeah quite a feat..."

There was a knock at the door. Victoria had returned with a box and offered it to Ruman giving Kate a warm smile.

"Thanks, Victoria," he dig through the box, pulling out a couple packages and a bottle of something. "Give these to Professor Song." He handed them back to her. "Tell her I'm still willing to help if she needs it."

"Sure thing." Victoria left the room again and he dug through the box.

"Ever used Nexicotton strips before?" he asked.

"Can't say I have."

He removed a small square of paper like material from a plastic box and handed it to her. "Just let this dissolve on your tongue and you'll be good in about an hour." 51st century medicine, she reminded herself, accepting the medicine and placing it on her tongue. "It'll make you a bit drowsy, so I suggest you lay down for a bit and take a nap." She almost spit it out at that not wanting to go to sleep in a house with a murderer, but the strip had already dissolved and there was not much she could do for it. He took out a bottle and poured a bit of liquid on a piece of cloth. It made a sizzling sound, which made her a bit leery, but, as he didn't seem concerned, she let him dab the cuts on her face with it. By the time he was finished, she could already feel the effects of the Nexi-something-or-other making her even more tired than she was before.

"Unfortunately, we don't have any bruise cream, but the Nexicotton should help with the pain anyway. Now go ahead and lay back down, I'll come wake you up if your still sleeping in two hours"

"Alright." She leaned back again letting the exhausted from the drug wash over her. She heard him close the door behind him. There was mumbled conversation in the hallway. She couldn't make out the words but, she assumed from the tone and earlier conversation that Song was once again politely refusing medical treatment. She heard what sounded like the door to her left close a few minutes later.

Despite the drowsiness from the drug, she couldn't help but be curious. She battled with herself for a few minutes before her need to know what River Song was hiding won out over her body's pleas to go to sleep. She slipped out of bed as quietly as possible. There were plenty of holes and cracks in the walls of the old inn for her to use to snoop. She knelt to look through one of them and, as she'd anticipated, she had a good view of the room next to hers.

Song was seated on the bed across from Kate, her feet dangling off the foot of the bed. The medical supplies Victoria had given her were still unopened next to her. She was not moving, holding her head with her eyes closed. Kate waited a few moments and then there was a sigh. As though she'd finally won some mental argument with herself, Song's head popped up and she moved off the bed.

She ripped open each of the packs she had and arranged the supplies so they were easy to reach and then popped something in her mouth. She grimaced, holding the side of the bed for a moment and then she reached around herself to slowly remove her shirt. If Kate thought her couple of bruises were bad, it was nothing compared to this. The injuries hadn't had time to set yet, but there was already a sickly yellow and purple tint to most of her back and a bad cut under her neck was slowly oozing blood. There was quite a bit; Kate wondered why she hadn't seen it leaking through her shirt earlier when she'd looked.

With the sort of efficiency that only someone who had done this sort of thing a million times could possess, Song mopped the blood off herself with a piece of cloth, juggling it between her hands repeatedly in order to actually clean the entire awkwardly located wound. She unrolled what looked like a thick piece of scotch tape and cut it with her teeth when she decided she had enough. She smoothed it over the jagged cut wincing when her own fingers pressed down on it.

She grabbed the bedpost with one arm and used the other hand to probe gently at her shoulder blade. She rotated her shoulder a couple of times and then suddenly yanked. There was a crunch and Song let out a string of whispers that Kate couldn't quite make out, but she understood the general idea anyway. She rotated her shoulder a few times and there were a few more cracks. She sat down on the edge of the bed her chest rising and falling rapidly for a few moments before she sat up again.

She unbuttoned her jeans and lifted her hips to slip them down her thighs a bit. Kate admittedly had to remind herself that she was looking at a cold-blooded murderer and one who was partially naked because she was dealing with semi-severe injuries, besides. Song slid her jeans a bit past her knees and was able to remove one leg easily but then had to slow down to roll the fabric down the other. Kate couldn't see much of the cut directly, but the amount of blood on the inside of her jeans indicated that it was more than just a scratch. Her clothing must have some type of future tech because, despite the fact that the inside of her jeans were soaked with blood, the outside seemed no worse for wear.

She seemed to have a bit of trouble, the fabric sticking to her wound. Once she'd gotten her jeans past her ankle, she twisted her leg up a bit so she could look at the injury on the back of her leg. Kate caught just a flash of the deep cut, but it made her wonder how Song had been walking around on it for so long. She poured disinfectant on it and it sizzled angrily. After the liquid had calmed down a bit, she spread a glue like substance over the cut and then covered it with the tape like patch again.

Song scooted back on the bed and grabbed what looked like normal medicine wrap to Kate. She wrapped it around the ankle of the same leg the cut was on a few times before fastening it and then collapsing onto her back.

When it became clear after a few minutes that Song was not going to move anytime soon, Kate got to her feet and made it back to her own bed a quietly as she could.

Her brain was fuzzy. (However, she was glad it was more medicine head now than concussion loopiness.) A lot of things didn't make sense. First of all, the people from the future themselves. The records Osgood told her about had said River Song was a well-known, violent criminal in prison for basically forever in the 51st century, but the people who were actually from there treated her like a pop star. She couldn't mesh the woman who had matter-of-factly said her purpose was murder with the one who had supposedly saved Victoria's grandmother and a bunch of other people. Plus, Song was apparently trying to make sure planets weren't treated by the intergalactic community like Earth was in the 21st century by passing laws. Assumable that meant that whatever governing body could enact such laws were willing to listen to a self-proclaimed psychopath. It didn't make any sense.

Then there was her injuries. Song's were much worse than Kate's; she actually looked like she'd had a building fall on top of her unlike Kate, who looked like she'd tripped on a sidewalk. Kate remembered the woman had been on top of her when they'd landed in this time, but she'd assumed that they'd been jostled around when going through the vortex. She'd certainly heard enough times how much people were thrown around even in the Doctor's TARDIS which was not stolen, experimental time travel (while, some accounts indicate it may have been stolen, but that wasn't the point). However, after seeing how injured the woman had been, it was obvious that Song had fallen on top of her before the building fell. But, "fallen" was the wrong word, because, while Kate's memory was a bit foggy, she was sure that Song had been way too far away to simply fall on her. Perhaps after she'd slept for a while and could think a bit more clearly, she'd be able to come up with another theory, but the only explanation Kate could think of was that River had thrown herself across the room in order to shield her from the results of the explosion. That certainly did not make any sense.

 **AN:** I'm not completely comfortable writing Osgood yet so sorry if it was sort of wrong. The reason that this took so long to update was the term paper I had mentioned I hadn't started yet in the first chapter.


	4. The Uses of Starbucks

It took a few hours for any part of Unit Headquarters to be cleared. By that time, most of the civilian employees had gone home for the day, leaving the soldiers to search the wreckage and secure the rest of the building. Osgood had, of course, stayed: half to supervise and half because being at home alone would make her even more anxious.

Missy had stayed too.

Osgood knew that Missy knew that she'd been watching as the older woman chatted up the soldiers, but, she'd apparently dismissed Osgood as harmless. Missy's countenance had changed throughout the day going from stuttering and whiny to… something else. Osgood couldn't quite put a name to what that something else was, but it rankled her already frayed nerves, though she had no idea why.

"Ma'am," a woman interrupted her staring.

"Yes?" she asked tearing her gaze away from Missy who was talking to the group of soldiers maintaining the perimeter.

"Lieutenant Bay wanted me to inform you that the main building is now cleared if you want to go back to your labs."

"Erm, yes, thank you," she responded with a nod. The soldier took that as a dismissal and left. Osgood would like to get to her lab, but she also didn't want to let Missy out of her sight. She bit her lip, unsure if she was just overeating because of stress. But was she willing to take that chance? Making up her mind, Osgood headed over to where Missy was standing.

"Um, Missy," Osgood said as the woman turned to her. "They just cleared the labs and I don't really want to go down there alone. Would you like to come with me?" Even to herself she was laying it on a bit thick, but Missy didn't seem to notice.

"M-me?" Missy asked a bit wide eyed. "Well, sure poppet, if it would make you feel better."

"Yeah, it really would," Osgood said and she meant it, though not for the reason Missy probably thought.

"Well then, let's go," she linked her arm with Osgood's (to Osgood's discomfort) and they headed down to the labs.

Missy was studying some of the alien DNA slides that the lab kept with a microscope while Osgood watched her out of the corner of her eyes from her desk. Osgood was pretending to do something on the computer, but was far too distracted to get anything done.

Sighing in frustration, she clicked open her emails. The first one was from Kate. Immediately clicking the red x on the top of the screen, she turned to the stack of printed out lab reports on her desk. She had read the first line at least 10 times when she heard the door open.

Osgood looked up as General Hughes entered her lab with another soldier at his heels. "Osgood. I need to speak with you," he said. She was immediately on her feet. It must be important for him to come to her himself with everything going on.

She glanced at Missy who was looking at them in interest. "Yes, sir," she said, "whatever you need, sir." He gave her an odd look as, despite not being a military officer, she basically outranked him and they'd worked together enough that she didn't usually call him 'sir.' He told the man at his side to stay in the lab with Missy and Osgood followed on his heels down the hallway.

"What is going on?" he asked when the door closed behind them.

"I'm not sure. Maybe nothing," she told him honestly. "What do you have for me?"

"I sent in a team to look for survivors in the basement."

"Who?"

"Wong, Carter, Simmons, Baughman, and Bak," he listed off.

She recognized all the names as higher ranking officers, ones that shouldn't normally be searching a collapsed building, but ordering those who are. "Good choices."

"They found someone. Not Kate," he continued before she could ask. "But they haven't found her body either," he reassured.

"Where?"

"North Wing. We haven't opened it up to anyone but a few trusted soldiers and medics."

"Good, who did they find?"

"Officer Cisse. He was just starting to gain consciousness when I left to get you, but Baughman had said that he'd been guarding River Song before Kate went to interview her and presumably was still guarding the room then."

"Well, maybe we will get some answers then."

"What answers are you even looking for?" he asked.

"I-I'm not sure. I'm working on instinct."

"About Miss Traper?" he asked knowingly.

She paused. Of course he'd noticed. He wasn't a stupid man and they'd worked together often enough. "Yes."

"Are you sure it's instinct and not grasping at straws?"

"I'm honestly not sure," she admitted.

"Osgood," he stopped her and turned to look her in the eye. "I don't like saying it, but a building fell on top of Kate, you need to be prepared for-"

"I know!" she almost shouted, not wanting to have it in open air. "I know," she repeated in a more calm tone, "That is why I'm not sure if my instincts are correct or not, but I'd rather be too cautious than let something get by us."

He searched her face for a moment and then nodded. He gestured to one of the doors behind her. "He's in there. I'd stay, but I need to coordinate the searches. I've already been gone too long."

"Of course, go ahead. Thank you for taking time to get me yourself," Osgood said.

He gave her a salute and left her alone at the slightly agar door. She hesitated for a moment and reached into her lab coat for her inhaler. She took a puff of medication and then stored it back in her pocket. It took a moment for her to muster up the courage to enter the room. After all, she may be about to get confirmation that her best friend was dead, but she needed to know.

One of UNIT's doctors that Osgood recognized as the doctor who had taken care of Kate on multiple occasions was jotting down a few notes on a clipboard. (Osgood would have to compliment the General on his personnel choices again the next time she saw him.) She nodded in greeting when Osgood stepped into the room. "Hello," Osgood said. Her eyes skirted to the man propped up on the hospital bed that had been stuffed into the small office. Cisse had a few cuts on his face and looked a little groggy, but he was conscious and looked up at her when she spoke.

"Would you be able to answer some questions?" she directed the question at the man in the bed, but her eyes flickered to the doctor, making sure it was alright.

"I'll just be off then," the doctor said, immediately upon her request, closing the door behind her even as Cisse was finishing his own answer.

"Sure, erm, yes ma'am?" Being a low ranking officer himself, he didn't quite understand the dynamic of UNIT's higher ups. He probably wondered why Ms. Stewart's personal assistant was the one who was going to be asking questions.

"Officer Cisse, am I right to believe you were guarding River Song while Ms. Stewart was interrogating her?"

He blinked at the authority in her tone. "Yeah, uh, yes ma'am."

"Can you tell me exactly what happened that led to the bomb going off?"

"Well," he thought about it for a moment. "I was outside of the interrogation room for most of it, so I didn't see much, but while I was guarding the door, I heard what sounded like a gun shot. So, obviously, I decided to check to see what was happening. I got knocked over and then Song and that other women were fighting. She threw Song off of her and then she pushed a button. I'm guessing it was a detonator to the bomb that went off."

"Wait. By "she," you mean, River Song set off the bomb?" Osgood asked.

"No, not Song, the other woman. I'm sorry; I can't remember her name, the one from the psych department."

"Missy?"

"Yes, that's it. Ms. Stewart was telling me to shoot her: to shoot the black haired one."

"Missy set off the bomb?" Osgood asked one more time just to make sure she was hearing right. He nodded. Well then, Osgood thought, I guess I wasn't overreacting.

Kate wasn't sure how long she'd been sleeping, but, when she woke, the pain in her head had blessedly disappeared. She listened to the sound of footsteps for a few minutes before rolling out of bed. She stretched and exited her room. The door to Song's room was already open and a quick glance inside told Kate the other woman was no longer there.

She realized that she had no idea where anything in the inn was, so she wandered around until she found a staircase leading to the third floor.

"Oh, you're up," a cheerful voice intoned just as Kate hit the landing. Kate looked up to see a blue person peering at her expectantly.

Kate gave a startled yelp, almost falling back down the stairs before registering the person's other features. "You changed color," she choked out.

Victoria looked down at herself in confusion before a light came on. "Oh, right, sorry," she laughed. "I'm part Minorian actually."

"Yeah, yeah, of course," Kate said as if she had any idea what that meant. Apparently, it meant she changed color?

"I have to wear a perception filter when working downstairs or going out," she explained, "People from the 17th century on Earth tend not to react well to blue people."

Neither did people from 21st century, Earth, apparently, Kate thought waiting for her heart to calm.

"Anyway," the girl continued on as if nothing had happened, "You're probably hungry by now. Dinner is almost ready. I'll show you the parlor." She started walking and Kate followed behind. "How is your head, by the way?"

"It's doing a lot better, thank you," she responded.

"Yeah, Ruman is pretty good with the medical things, though I wish we still had some bruise cream to take care of that nose," Victoria responded nodding to her. Kate hadn't seen her nose, but she assumed from the tenderness that it was quite a sight.

Victoria stopped at one of the doors and Kate could hear River laughing from the other side.

"I promise you, movies existed before the television was invented," she was informing Ruman, amusement in her voice when Kate and Victoria entered the room.

"But that makes no sense!" he exclaimed. "Why would people make movies if they didn't have anything to watch them on?"

"Movie theaters," she explained, patiently.

"Are you telling me that people invented huge, building sized 3-D screens before they could make little ones to put in people's houses?" he asked, incredulous.

"They weren't 3-D, they were flat and could only show in black and white."

"So they could put black and white filters on movies, but they couldn't make a TV?"

"No, they…" she shook her head. "I'll just take you to see a movie in the 1800s sometime and then you'll see, how about that?" She patted him on the knee.

Ruman's eyes widened. "I-yes," he squeaked a bit and then cleared his throat. "Sure."

River gave him a soft smile and Kate was struck by the thought that she actually seemed to mean it. That she'd be willing to take time out of her schedule to take one of her adoring fans on a trip to a different century to watch a movie. "It'll be a graduation present," she promised him. Then she turned to Kate. "How're you doing?"

"I'm better," Kate responded. "Um, how are you doing?" It seemed absurd to be exchanging pleasantries with the psychopathic murderer of her father's best friend who may have just saved her life, especially as their only conversations previously had involved either one of them being drugged and arrested or both of them being injured. But what else could she say?

"Nothing serious." River responded flippantly. Liar.

Victoria went to sit down in one of the chairs across from River and Kate followed her lead, taking the one next to blue woman.

River eyed the girl for a moment. "So, Victoria, Kate and I are going to need to get back to the 21st century pretty soon. You don't happen to have something that we can use to hop forward a few centuries?" River asked.

"Um, I don't think so," she replied. "I mean, obviously we have the emergency time travel system, but that'll take all of us straight back to school and set off a bunch of safety protocols." Her eyes flickered to Ruman. "I'm sure Professor Kumar doesn't have anything of use either, but you should ask him if he has any ideas." Ruman was completely oblivious to Victoria's change in tone, but River nodded with a secret smile, taking the hint. "Why exactly do you need to get to the 21st century?"

"I'm researching the change in Earth's architecture during the time of economic globalization for my next book," she lied smoothly.

"Oo, I'll have to read that one!" Ruman enthused. River hesitated a bit at that, but was saved by the sound of a (probably not time appropriate) buzzer going off. "Oh! My cinnamon rolls must be done!" he enthused shooting to his feet. "I'm making them from scratch like they used to in this time!" He practically skipped from the room.

It took a few moments for it to sink in. "Wait, what?!" Victoria looked up; there was a glint of panic in the grad student's eyes. "Shit." She chased after him, leaving Kate and River alone.

Without the buffer of concussions or archeology students, Kate wasn't quite sure what to do. River watched her calmly, waiting for her to speak. Kate tried to sort through the questions bumping around in her head. "You-you're a professor?" she finally managed to spit out. Out of all of the possible questions to ask the woman sitting across from her, that was probably the least useful, but also the easiest to formulate.

It looked like River was trying to smirk, but the smile came out a bit too genuine. "Yes, I am."

"I thought you were in prison," Kate's said suspicious.

"Their security could use some work," she said dryly. She was avoiding directly answering the question Kate hadn't asked.

"So, 51st century universities are willing to hire high profile, escaped convicts, then?"

River pursed her lips at Kate's tone, but then sighed heavily. "Well, actually I should…" Whatever she was about to say was cut off by the sound of male voices and footsteps ascending the stairs. Dammit. Kate was pretty sure she was about to get some actual answers.

"But I still don't understand why _I_ have to wear a perception filter!" one of the voices said.

"It's not like you're the only person who has to wear one," a weary voice responded, "Victoria and I wear one too."

"Yeah, but Victoria's blue! It's not a natural human color!" a young man came into view at the door. "What had they not invented black people yet?"

An older man appeared, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Indeed they had. But the last time a student didn't wear a perception filter when going outside in this century, he got sold into slavery. Do you want to be sold into slavery, Brendan?"

"If I recall correctly," River interrupted, getting to her feet. There was a smile in her voice, "that student just so happened to be you."

The man turned to her in surprise and then glared as Brendan guffawed beside him.

"Wait. That was you, Professor Kumar?" Brendan laughed.

His professor sighed, still glowering. "Yes," he admitted, "and the only reason I'm standing in front of you today is because Professor Song flirted with the man who had tried to sell me. I, however, wouldn't bother for you. So, wear your perception filter."

Brendan didn't seem phased by the strict tone the man was using. "No, but all this time you've been lecturing us about the danger of not wearing your perception filter and blah blah blah blah blah, but all along you were the reason for the rule in the first place!" He gave a louder laugh and then ran out of the room yelling. "Victoria, Ruman, guess what?!"

"Thanks," Kumar said dryly to River.

"No problem." He scowled at her, but the expression quickly melted away. He moved forward to hug her. She accepted the hug, wrapping her own arms around him and pressing her face into his shoulder. Kate had to wonder if, despite the fact that none of her body language indicated it, his arms gripping her bruised back hurt.

"I thought you were on Anathema with your husband," he said. River Song had a husband?

She pulled back with an eye roll. "You'd think after all this time, you'd understand the concept of time travel."

"Oh, right," he ducked his head a bit, "When are you from then?"

"You're still procrastinating on your thesis," she informed him letting a little annoyance slip into her tone.

He gave a small smile. "Well, obviously, I get it done eventually."

"And how much do I have to yell at you before that?"

"…A bit…"

"Professor, Ruman set the kitchen on fire again," a voice yelled.

"I can handle this, Brendan!"

Professor Kumar groaned.

"Student's, huh?" River commented, eyeing him.

He gave a defeated sigh, "yeah," and then he went to deal with the disaster at the other end of the house.

A few hours later, everyone had been fed (though not cinnamon rolls) and Kate had been introduced to the two other members of the household.

Professor Kumar was a kind man who seemed to genuinely enjoy the antic of his students when they weren't destroying things or laughing him. Unfortunately for him, they laughed at him a lot over dinner. River seemed to enjoy embarrassing him, keeping up a constant stream of stories from his undergrad days until he was blushing a bright scarlet and had his head on the table.

Brendan was an undergraduate who tried to flirt with both River and Kate despite the fact that both were obviously a few decades older than him. That is, until both Victoria and Ruman smacked him upside the head simultaneously. "He does that to everyone," Ruman had informed her and the man at question stuck his tongue out in response.

Kate hadn't had any opportunity to pick up the conversation with River as they hadn't been left alone since. Finally, after dinner, Professor Kumar asked Victoria to reteach the two undergraduates how to balance the inn's books the way people did during this time. Ruman had apparently managed to muck it up and Brendan had been caught using a 20th century calculator (which he'd sworn he thought was time appropriate).

"So," Kuman said once his students' voices had disappeared down the steps. "Victoria tells me you didn't' just stop in for a visit."

River nodded. "We had a bit of trouble in the 21st century and had to use emergency transport. You don't happen to have something that could get us back there?"

"Officially, we only have the emergency response time travel."

The sides of her lips curled up a bit. "And unofficially?"

"Well, I was _your_ student."

"Excellent," River leaned forward, a proud glint in her eye. "What've you got?"

"Nothing fancy. Just a time jumper. It can get you somewhere in the late 20th or early 21st century. You can set the month and year, but it's not always completely accurate," he cautioned.

"I'm sure I can get it to work," River said and then tilted her head. "Why do you have a time travel device that only takes you to the 20th and 21st century anyway?"

"It's your fault," he accused.

"I imagine it is," she conceded, "What did I do?"

He blushed a bit. "You introduced me to Starbucks."

River laughed. "Sounds like something I'd do."

"Yeah. Speaking of, make sure to get that back to me. I'm not sure if I could deal with Brendon if I didn't have my caffeine fix in the morning."

"I'll get you a gift card in payment," she promised sweetly.

 **AN:** Again, sorry about the Osgood scenes. Her voice just doesn't speak in my head as well as I want it to and it makes the scenes a bit awkward. Just a warning, the next chapter is going to be harder for me to write so it may be a while for an update.


	5. Coffee Shops and Hotels

**AN: I'm not going to have a lot of time in the next few days to edit this so I decided to read through it a few times and just post it so it's out there. I hope there are not too many mistakes, but I'm not the best with spelling and grammar.**

Time travel is a lot more uncomfortable when you're awake, Kate noted stumbling forward a bit as her feet hit asphalt. River's hand was there to keep her from toppling over while she got her bearings. She took a few deep breaths, bent over at the waist, before straitening.

"You get used to it," River told her, letting go once she was sure that Kate had her footing.

They had landed in a small passageway between two buildings, the sound of traffic pervading the air. She could smell garbage and gasoline over the lingering burning smell she assumed was from the time jumper. (She had to wonder if time travel like that was good for the time-space continuum.) "Where are we?" she asked.

"Alley," she responded.

"Oh, well, thanks for that information."

River smiled at her tone. "Give me a minute," she requested. She wandered out of the alleyway, Kate following wearily behind, before stopping dead. "It's always got to be Manhattan, doesn't it," she said distastefully after eyeing the street they were on for a few moments.

"What's wrong with Manhattan?" Kate asked.

River shook her head. "Just if the Statue of Liberty comes to life again, I'm going to have to murder someone."

"What?"

"Cars and building say early 21st century," she said without missing a beat. "What day was it when we left?" she asked.

Kate ground her teeth for a moment "October 7th, 2013," she responded.

"Oh good. Right time, then" she nodded to bank sign that read 5:57 pm, October 7th, 2013. "Wrong continent, but you can't be too picky with a time hopper."

"Can we get back to the Statue of Liberty coming to life?" she asked.

"Oh, look, there's the Starbucks," River ignored her completely and started making her way across the street.

"River!"

"I took care of it," she said. "Though that may have been a few years in the future," she mumbled under her breath.

"If I get murdered by the Statue of Liberty before I can stop The Master from ending the world, I swear…" The bell above the Starbucks door gave a little tingle.

"You don't possibly have any cash on you do you?" River asked.

"I have 30 cents in my pocket from the vending machine this morning."

She eyed the barista "Hmm, then you get a seat and I'll get the drinks."

"Do you have money?"

River gave her a devious smile. "Nope." Kate looked at her for a moment and then sighed, turning to find a table.

It turned out that River Song was an expert flirt. Kate resisted rolling her eyes as River chatted with a man who looked young enough to be her son. He was totally eating it up though. Kate had to wonder what he would think if he knew the top she'd unbuttoned a bit was soaked in her own blood on the inside. Or that she was leaning more on one leg less to cock her hip flirtatiously and more to keep the weight off her wrapped ankle and sliced up calf.

Probably run.

She gave a loud laugh that was so fake it grated on Kate's ears, but the boy didn't seem to notice. He handed her two Styrofoam cups and she spent a few more seconds talking to him before turning to walk towards Kate. His eyes never left her ass the whole way back to the table.

"I wasn't sure what you'd like so I just got you tea," she said putting one of the cups down in front of her. English Breakfast (according to the tag) made in a Styrofoam cup, but she couldn't be too picky. River took the top off her own cup to let some of the steam out. Kate wasn't sure what the drink was, but it had quite a bit of foam.

"So you just manipulate drinks out of people when you don't have currency?" Kate asked taking an experimental sip of her tea.

"Yes," she answered simply before digging something out of her pocket and tossing it to her.

"Where did you get a cell phone?" Kate asked surprised.

"Nicked it off the loudmouth guy in a suit that was in front of me."

"River!"

"He was rude and you have much more important uses for it. Call someone at UNIT, preferably someone you trust. His passcode is 2556."

Kate bit her tongue (she was probably right after all) and typed in the code. She hoped for his sake that he had International Calling.

Missy had disappeared. Osgood had returned to an empty lab, both the guard and Missy having left already. That was very, very, very not good. She was currently trying to find General Hughes who she'd been told was on the third floor of the main building, but she couldn't find him. Her phone vibrated in her lab pocket and she paused to dig it out. The number was one she didn't recognize. She thought about ignoring it. After all, she had much more important things to do than entertain a telemarketer right now, but ended up answering anyway.

"Hello," she said.

"Osgood," a very familiar voice said from the other side of the line. "Are you alone?" Osgood had to bite back the name she'd been about to sigh in relief as two soldiers rounded the corner.

"No, um, just a second please," Osgood replied. She glanced around the hall and ducked into one of the offices for privacy. Closing the door behind her, she chose to lean against a wall so that she was hidden from view of the window. "Kate?" she asked.

"Yeah, it's me," Kate answered. "How's UNIT?"

"Well, there was an explosion on the floor you were supposedly on," Osgood said, her voice a bit sharper than usual.

"Yes, I know," Kate said calmly, "I was there."

"Where are you now, Kate?" Osgood asked.

"New York."

"How on Earth did you get there?"

"River Song had a time travel device hidden on her," Kate explained, "Also, a gun. Remind me to lecture everyone on proper search techniques when this is all over."

"Are you still with her?" Osgood asked a little concerned. She had read her files.

"River? Yes." When had Kate started using River Song's first name? "We have a truce at the moment," Osgood's boss explained. "Turns out neither one of us wants the world to be destroyed. Which brings me to…"

"Missy Trapper is evil," Osgood supplied. There was a pause.

"How did you figure that out?"

"After talking to her for a while, something felt off, so I interviewed the officer that had been guarding the room when you interrogated Song. He said you told him to shoot Missy; I put the pieces together."

Kate gave a little chuckle and her voice gentled. She was no longer speaking as Osgood's all-business boss, but her friend. "I don't know why I'm surprised. You're incredibly clever." Osgood was glad no one else was in the room as she felt a blush creep up her neck at the compliment. "But, yes, Missy is evil. She's an incarnation of The Master. I know you've read the old files."

"Yes, I know who it is," Osgood replied and then paused. "I thought you were dead," she confided, her voice cracking a bit.

"I know," Kate sighed. "I'm sorry."

"You really need to stop doing that to me."

"I don't try to put myself in situations where I almost get killed," Kate pointed out.

"Well you do a bloody good job of it anyway," Osgood murmured back. Kate huffed at her and Osgood found herself smiling despite herself. "So what's the plan then?"

"Do you know where Missy is?" Kate asked.

"Erm, I lost her."

"You lost her?"

"And the soldier that was guarding her, but I'm working on it."

"Well, we apparently have a weapon of mass destruction we're unaware of and Missy wants to detonate it. So, I suggest you're first stop is the Black Archives."

"If I'm looking for a weapon we don't know the function of, the Black Archives is probably the best bet."

"Alright. Stall her as long as possible: hack into the security system and lock all the doors, release that virus you made that causes purple rashes into the vents, pull the fire alarm, whatever. Just make sure she doesn't set anything off."

"Wreak havoc on UNIT. Got it," Osgood replied. "What about you?"

"Well, as much as I'm enjoying the American's attempt at a cup of tea, apparently, the Statue of Liberty might be alive. So, I'd like to get out of Manhattan soon if at all possible."

"Should I send a plane to pick you up?"

"Sending one of UNIT's planes may be a bit conspicuous. Missy thinks River and I are dead. Best keep the upper hand."

"Passports then. I'll get you a ticket with the John F. Kennedy airport for as early tomorrow as possible. I'll also book you a room at the Holiday Inn we stayed in last year and have the passports, tickets, and some cash delivered to your room by tonight."

"I'm not even going to ask how you plan to do all that. I'll just be forever in your debt."

"Just buy me dinner afterwards," Osgood said cheekily.

"Osgood, if the world doesn't end, I will take you to the most expensive 5 star restraint I can find and get you drunk on their best wine."

Osgood gulped a bit at that. "I, uh, will find Missy, distract her, and get your stuff to you as soon as possible."

"Thank you. I don't know what I'd do without you."

Osgood smiled at the genuine warmth in her friend's tone. "I'm glad you're not dead, Kate."

"I'm pretty glad about that as well," she joked. "I'll call you later tonight."

Kate pushed the end button on the phone and slid it back over the table toward River. The woman had been watching her with casual interest over her drink while Kate had spoken with Osgood. River took the phone and messed with it a bit before sliding it off the table so it landed in a plant next to them. She turned back to see Kate's questioning look. "He'll get it back eventually," she said with no sign of repentance.

"Osgood is booking us a hotel and will send us passports and plane tickets tonight." Kate informed her choosing to ignore her companions disregard for other people's property.

"Osgood? Boyfriend?" River asked curiously.

"No," Kate scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"Hmm, girlfriend then?"

"No!" she said a bit too enthusiastically.

"Mhmm."

"She's just a friend. Coworker. Shut up."

River smirked. "So when is your _friend_ getting us out of here?"

Kate blatantly ignored her tone. "First plane to London tomorrow morning."

"Sounds like a good plan." Kate's attention was drawn from River's face by movement near the counter behind her. The boy who River had been flirting with/extorting drinks from a few minutes ago was walking toward them. Without breaking stride, he placed a folded up piece of paper on the table near River's hand. River watched him walk away with drawn together eyebrows, but a slight smile on her face. Like she was actually considering it.

"To young for you," Kate chided her.

"Most people are," River informed her with a toothy grin, unfolding the piece of paper. As Kate rolled her eyes in exasperation, River glanced down. The smile suddenly slid off her face and a bit of color drained from her cheeks.

"What-?" Kate began as River folded the paper back up, her teeth clenched.

"We need to leave. Now." She stood up and grabbed Kate's wrist. Kate was pretty sure if she hadn't willingly gotten to her feet, River would have simply pulled her from her chair and hauled her out of the coffee shop.

"Why?" Kate received no answer as River began half-dragged her toward the door. Kate reached back to grab the note from the table, but otherwise consented to their sudden exodus.

River set a brisk pace once they hit the street, not fast enough to draw suspicion, but defiantly not a leisurely stroll. "River. Stop. What's happening?" Kate asked attempting to stop her by digging her heels into the concrete, but it had no effect on the other woman's stride. Kate, however, almost ended up eating pavement. Stumbling to catch up, lest her arm get ripped from its socket, Kate noted that River was much stronger than she looked, and she didn't exactly look weak. On some level, Kate had already known it between her ability to fight after being drugged and walking around on her torn up leg, but it was now very clear there was something not human about her. Kate's entire body weight hadn't even registered. What was this woman?

Needed some explanation, Kate fumbled with the piece of paper in her hand that had set the other woman off. It was a little slip of notebook paper that had been torn out with only three words written on it: "Melody Pond, run." They were three seemingly unrelated words, but they obviously meant something to River. She let the words rattle around in her head, searching for meaning.

Well, running was something they seemed to be doing. The "M" and "P" in Melody Pond were capitalized and Melody was sometimes a first name. So, not just random words: a name and a command? A command to someone named Melody Pond obeyed immediately by River Song. But, Kate knew someone with the surname Pond, someone connected to The Doctor.

"Melody Pond. Like Amy Pond?" Kate released the half-formed idea as a question. At her words, River's shoulder blades drew together and she topped dead. "Are you…?"

"I'm her daughter," River gritted out. Well, that was a new development. A million questions ran through her mind.

"But why-?"

"Because," she turned to look Kate in the eyes, "if you're trying to create an assassin to kill The Doctor, you don't just choose any child to brainwash. You choose one that hurts especially one who has special advantages from being conceived in the TARDIS. Because you can't just murder The Doctor no matter how good you are. You have to make him let you."

"Okay," she said unable to digest this information, "but why were we running?"

At the reminder, River's eyes darted around like a spooked cat and she pulled on Kate's arm again. She didn't bother to try to stop the woman again, but kept stride with her.

"River. Explain." She demanded. River's hand tightened on her wrist, not enough to hurt, but Kate certainly hoped she didn't squeeze any harder.

"The things that trained me to kill The Doctor are here," she explained. "And neither they nor I want to have a confrontation in a public place."

"But, then you work for them," Kate pointed out. "Doesn't that make them allies."

River laughed bitterly. "I used to work for them," she corrected, "though I'm not quite sure if you would say I was working for them as I didn't really have much of a choice and my payment was not getting shot with electricity. They told me I was to kill The Doctor and like any child raised in a cult, I did exactly what they asked, and when I was no longer useful, they locked me up in prison like it was a storage closet and I was a broken doll they were done playing with. That was their biggest mistake." Kate expected her to stem the flow of information there, as she had already given more than she probably would have in other circumstances, but she continued talking. "I killed the Doctor over 300 years ago," 300 years? "Since then, I learned a lot about The Doctor and my parents and myself. At one point, I decided I didn't like what they'd done to me and I've spent the rest of my life systematically dismantling as many of their operations as possible. Up to now, most of the damage I did was anonymous, but recently, I decided to use my pull with the intergalactic government to have them officially classified as a type A extremist terrorist group which means they have no access to any money, it is punishable with up to 50 years in prison to work with them, and time agents have been given the tools to track them through space and time to bring them down. Most will be dead soon. Perhaps a few will be brought in alive to spend the rest of their lives in prison, but, either way, it's the beginning of the end for them. They're a bit pissed at me." There was a flush to her cheeks now and some sweat on her brow. Kate could hear the concealed panic in her voice. "They'd been attacking me before I fell into your time: shot my vortex manipulator which is why there was such a disturbance when I landed." She had never thought River Song would be a nervous blabber, but she was defiantly panicking now, her breaths coming in gasps like she'd been running. But then, Kate realized, she was gasping for breath too. Her lungs were burning like she'd just sprinted for 15 minutes and sweat was rolling down her face. And they were in an alley. They had just been on a busy street!

"How did we get here?" Kate asked.

"Shit!" River's voice cracked just a bit. "shit."

"What just happened?"

River gathered herself with a shaky breath. "The creatures who are after us have the ability to erase themselves from people's memory as soon as they look away."

"What does that mean?"

"That means, they chased us here, but we can't remember it." Well that wasn't terrifying at all. "I've been dealing with this for almost 400 years," River said more to herself than to Kate. "If I know they're here, I can guess what happened." She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. "It's like a puzzle with a piece missing. You can figure out what's missing by looking at the pieces around it." She opened her eyes again and slowly turned around in a complete circle before looking Kate in the eyes. "They are blocking both ends of the alley. Don't look!" she exclaimed when Kate began to turn. "You won't remember you saw them anyway." Kate nodded, a lump settling in her throat. "There is a door behind you. Close you're eyes and turn 180 degrees. Don't try to look at them." Kate really wanted to look, couldn't stand not knowing what and where her enemies were, but River's pupils were dilated and she looked like she might puke. She wasn't sure if she completely trusted River Song yet, but she trusted the fear she saw in her eyes. Closing her eyes, Kate followed the instructions and, when she opened her eyes, there was indeed a door. She felt River step up beside her, but didn't dare glance her way. River tried the doorknob, but it didn't move. She felt River's frustrated breath against her neck. The other woman shifted, bending down. When she straitened, she had a small, rusty nail in her hand. Kate wasn't surprised that the door popped open after a few moments of River jiggling the lock. As soon as the door was pushed open, Kate was shoved into a well-lit room.

"A hotel?" Kate said.

"An abandoned hotel," River said with trepidation. "God I'm so stupid!"

"What?"

"They herded us here like fucking cattle," she spat, putting her face in her hands. She was cracking. "Shit. Shit, shit, shit." She leaned over, her hands on her knees.

"River!" The woman was breaking down in front of her and Kate needed her. She didn't know what was going on or what they were fighting. Not as much as River did. She grabbed the woman's shoulders and made her straiten to look her in the eye. "River, you've got to focus," she said, giving her a little shake. She had to say something to snap the woman out of this. She thought back to their earlier conversation about how River had come to be the person she was now. "You're not a brainwashed child, River. You're Professor River Song and you've got to be an adult right now." That seemed to be the right thing to say because her breath started to even out. Kate watched the panic fade from her eyes to be replaced with anger. Anger would work for now.

"Alright. I'm good." She stepped away from Kate, her eyes searching the empty reception area for something useful. "I doubt they left us much that would be useful for a weapon, but I'm good at improvis-" There was a "ding" and they both turned toward the elevator, but the doors were still closed.

"That's- how did we get on the roof?" Instead of standing on old blue carpet surrounded by lounge chairs, they were on a concrete floor surrounded by open air.

"Well, I can't be completely sure, but I'd assume there were some on the elevator. The two groups from the street probably came in behind us and we took our chances with the smaller group in the elevator." River guessed. Kate eyed the elevator they'd apparently been on. The changing numbers on the screen above the doors were ticking down toward 1. It paused there for a moment before the number went back to 2.

"They're coming back up," Kate said.

"Right, right, try the stairs," River commanded. Kate raced to the door to the stairs and pushed, but it was no use. The door was locked and judging by the grey blur she could see through the window, blocked.

"No good," she told River.

"And my gun's out of charge," River said glaring at the weapon. "I hope I killed at least a dozen of them."

"So, the stairs are blocked, we have no weapons, and alien creatures who can wipe out memories are coming to kill us. No way out then?"

River smiled at her words and Kate wasn't sure if she should be comforted or terrified about that. "Oh, Kate Stewart, there is always a way out." She grabbed Kate's hand and pulled her toward the edge of the building. She got up on the ledge so she could easily fall of with one wrong move and gestured for Kate to join. Kate blinked at her. "It's fine, I promise." Despite her better judgment, Kate slowly got up on the ledge.

"What are we doing?" she asked, pointedly not looking over the edge.

"Just a second, I need to send a psychic message." River said closing her eyes. Okay… "Alright," she continued when she was done, "now we're going to jump."

"What?! No!"

"It's this or get captured by the Silence."

"This building is almost 30 stories high! I am not jumping off of it!"

"Do you have any better ideas?"

"Yes in fact. Not. Doing. That." River grabbed her arm when her gestures almost threw her off balance.

"Fine," River huffed. "We'll figure something else out."

Kate sighed in relief. "Good, so, we-" and River shoved her off the roof.

 **AN: And in the next chapter my Doctor/River shipper side rears its head.**


	6. Swimming Pools and Revelations

**AN: So. This was supposed to be the fastest chapter to write, but I got really sick and ended up in the hospital. Now I'm really behind on school work and I honestly don't know when this will get finished, but I promise it will get done.**

Clara's day had been surprisingly dull, well, dull for a day with The Doctor. Sure, they'd been to an alien planet in the future, but all they'd done was get ice cream. No evil plots or planets being blown up. The Doctor hadn't even gotten them kicked out of the ice cream pallor, which was a pleasant surprise, but incredibly boring, nonetheless.

Also, about halfway through their ice cream cones, The Doctor had gotten distracted and distant. He'd been unable to hide how antsy he was, his foot tapping like it had a mind of its own and was waiting for the moment it could be running. Perhaps he was bored like Clara. After all, the ice cream had been a nice change of pace, but they were both adrenaline junkies. Just as she was about to suggest they find some fun to do, The Doctor turned to her.

"Bedtime for humans, I think," he said.

Her eyebrows rose. "I've been with you for an hour and a half and all we've done is get ice cream," she pointed out.

"Yes, well, humans need a lot of sleep you know. Got to keep you healthy. Lots of adventures for when you wake up," he babbled.

"I'm not tired," she said. He just stared at her with owlish eyes. "Doctor, what's the matter with you?"

"Nothing." 

"Nothing?"

"I've got to do a thing."

"A thing?"

"Yes."

"What thing, Doctor?"

"A very important thing. Very dangerous. Not for humans. Got to do it alone."

Her eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms. "Oh, really?"

"Yep."

"Fine, then, I'll just stay in the console room until you get back then," she suggested.

"No, but I need the console room," he said trying to shoo her toward the hallway that led to the rest of the ship. She planted her feet with her best teacher's scowl. "Come on, you can watch that one weird television show with the blond girl and the badly designed vampires and take a bubble bath while eating chocolate. Isn't that what humans do to relax?"

"Doctor, what are you really up to?" Clara asked.

He watched her for a moment and finally seemed to realize she wasn't going to leave until he told her. "I need to, um, pick up a friend."

"A friend?" He shifted nervously in a way he rarely did unless… and that's when the realization sunk in. "This friend doesn't possibly have curly hair and a penance for jumping of high objects and snogging you against the console?"

"Well… Yes…"

"Oh, god Doctor, you have to 'do a thing.' Yuck."

"That's not what I-"

"No, ew, I'm leaving," she said turning to go the way he'd been trying to push her earlier. "Come get me when its safe," she called over her shoulder.

Kate had always imagined her last thoughts would be devoted to reflecting on everything she'd done in life and remembering all of her loved ones. However, the only thing that came to mind as she flew backwards through the air was 'Screw River Song.' She closed her eyes, not wanting to watch the top of the building get farther and farther away as she fell, and braced herself for impact with the solid ground.

The air was knocked out of her when she met sudden resistance, but, to her surprise, whatever she hit gave. She gave a startled gasp and inhaled water. Water? Her brain misfired at the sudden change in her predicament. She lashed out with all four of her limbs, but she couldn't even tell which way was up. All the while, she was swallowing mouthfuls of water. Drowning. Had she died? Was this hell? Hell was supposed to be full of fire, not water. Was there an ocean level of hell?

Something grabbed her under the arms and she struggled, but it still managed to tow her easily through the water. Her head breached the surface and she immediately tried to suck in a lung full of oxygen, but had to spit out a mouthful of water first. She struggled to breathe for a few moments, coughing up water and sucking in air. After a while, she registered a hand hitting her back and she looked up to see River Song's face, her usually gravity defying hair plastered to her head. She could only imagine what it would look like when it dried and was suddenly glad she had strait hair. She half laughed, half coughed up more water at her own thought process.

"It's alright, you'll be fine," River soothed over the sound of rushing water in response to the strange sound Kate had just made.

"Screw. You." Kate chocked. River seemed to consider that a sign that Kate was okay as she released her and swam back a foot. Kate kicked out her legs to start treading water, but her feet hit the bottom of the pool. That just made Kate even more confused. The pool had to have been deeper than that when they'd fallen in or Kate would have hit the bottom when she fell into it. Which brought up the question: how had they jumped off a building and landed in a pool? She was about to voice her question to the woman in front of her when a man's chiding voice spoke from the side of the pool.

"Could you please stop jumping off of things?" he asked. Something lit up behind River's eyes, but Kate didn't have time to analyze it, as River turned away and swam to the side of the pool near his feet. As River pulled herself out of the pool, Kate realized that the water level was now at her armpits where only moments before she'd been barley able to touch the bottom with her toes. The pool was draining. But it wasn't, she realized a moment later. The floor was rising, pushing the water over the sides before it disappeared into drains on the side that River stepped over to stand in front of the man. He wrapped a towel around River's shoulders and used another one to start rubbing at her hair. She immediately snatched it away to pat at her own hair and said something Kate couldn't hear over the sound of rushing water.

Ignoring them for now, she let herself collapse forward on her knees when the water level dropped enough, every bit of energy leaving her body. She took a few deep breaths as her heart started to slow. The glass floor was moving under her and she could see a swirling current under her knee. The water must go up over the top and drain back under the moving floor to let the pool be whatever depth one wanted.

The floor stopped moving and the sound of running water faded to a trickle.

"Yes, yes, but that's no fun, Sweetie," River was saying with what could only be described as a pout. Kate could only see half of the man's face, but the eyebrow she could see was drawn up in annoyance.

"What just happened," Kate asked before he could respond to River. They turned to her at the same time, almost as thought they'd forgotten she was there.

"The TARDIS realized you were panicking and drained the pool," River answered.

"Well, maybe I would have taken being shoved off a roof into a pool better if someone had given me warning… TARDIS?"

"River! You just shoved Kate off a building with no explanation?" The man exclaimed with a scowl. His face was actually quite terrifying, but River just rolled her eyes.

"She's fine," she turned to Kate, "you're fine." Kate ignored River, eyeing the man and noting the long navy jacket. With his hands on his hips, she could see the red lining on the inside: like one a magician would wear. TARIDS + stupid cloths. Kate wasn't stupid.

"You said you killed him," Kate accused.

"Again?" the Doctor asked casually.

"Shush," River scolded him, shoving at his shoulder. "Maybe he's just a younger version," River suggested, airily.

"The Doctor first met me when he wore a bowtie and looked 12. The records I have on you say that's the one you killed. If he knows me, he must be a later regeneration."

"Fair enough."

"So you're not a psychopath then?" Kate asked.

"Well, I never said that," River replied.

The Doctor scoffed. "Oh, please, Miss heralded-savior-of-The-Library/acclaimed-archeology-professor/interplanetary-relations-cosultant, when was the last time you did something psychopathic?"

"Well I just shoved you're best friends daughter off a 30 foot building," she pointed out sounding far too proud for Kate's liking.

"Only 30?" the Doctor quipped. "You've grown soft in your old age."

"Oh, shut up."

"Why didn't you just tell me he was alive?" Kate asked.

"I would have, but it never seemed to be the right time. I wasn't going to tell you in front of Missy, and then you had a concussion, and then we were surrounded by archeology students. I certainly wasn't going to discuss it with you in the middle of a crowded coffee shop where anyone could eavesdrop, and there wasn't much free time while running for our lives and jumping off hotels.

"Well, I doubt I'd remember if you'd told me when we were being chased by the mind wiping aliens anyway," Kate commented. River winced as soon as the words left her mouth. It took about a half a second for The Doctor's mind to process the words, but Kate would swear that the temperature in the room dropped a few degrees when he realized what she'd said.

"You were being chased by The Silence" River gave a noncommittal shrug, "Why were you being chased by The Silence, River?"

"I pissed them off." 

"River!"

"I'm fine. It's not like they caught us." The Doctor turned to Kate for confirmation.

"No, they didn't catch us," Kate told him. River started to say something else. "Although," Kate continued. "she's not fine. We were in an explosion and she got cut up pretty bad. Her back's probably very bruised by now and her leg's probably still bleeding."

"River Song, are you hiding injuries again?!"

River didn't look at him, just stared at her in a little surprise and a lot of annoyance. "Traitor."

"You just threw me off a building."

"Melody Pond!"

River turned back to him. "I was going to tell you."

"When?"

"Later."

"Go to the med bay," he ordered.

"I don't need to go to the med bay."

"River." He said exasperated.

"Look, I've had a long day. I'm going to take a shower," she said leaving no room for argument. "Find Kate a room and some cloths and you can fuss over my injuries once I'm not covered in grime." It probably had less to do with "grime" and more to do with her own blood. "Then we need to all go to bed."

"But if you're injured you need-"

"I am fine. I did first aid on myself. I've been walking around all day on it. I think I can handle ten more minutes." The Doctor was about to argue, but she cut him off. "Get Kate a bed, Sweetie," she commanded sternly before turning to stride out of the room before he could react.

"She's infuriating," The Doctor said to himself.

"I've actually noticed that in our brief time together," Kate commented. He turned to her then and looked her up and down.

"You probably need some dry cloths," he said. He walked to a rack holding a stack of towels and tossed one at her. "Follow me."

She obeyed, trailing after him once she'd wrapped the towel around her shoulders. They exited the same door River had into a seemingly endless hallway. She kept stride with him as he led her though the twists and turns of the ship. 'Seeming infinite' is how some of the people who'd traveled with him had described the time machine. Kate had to agree.

"What?" the man she'd been studying for the last few minutes asked. "You've been staring."

"Is it always so drastic?" Kate asked recalling his former face. "Regeneration? I mean, I understand it mostly. Most of your faces are in the UNIT files and dad actually witnessed it, but it's still a bit strange when it's right in front of me."

He shrugged. "It's not so strange to me. It's like getting a haircut. You look a bit different and sometimes act different at first because you think it makes you look smarter, or younger, or more mature. But, ultimately, it's not really a big thing." Except you literally had to die for it, Kate thought. "But to answer your question," he continued, "my regenerations usually try to fix things I didn't like about the last face."

"You didn't like looking 12, so you went grey and angry?"

"The angry thing is not my fault. It's the eyebrows," he said waggling them up and down for effect with an almost scarily large grin.

Kate laughed at him. Alright, she could believe he was The Doctor. "So River Song is a friend then?" she asked.

"You could say that," he replied a bit evasively.

"I understand she's Amy Pond's daughter." Kate hedged. He stopped and turned to her.

"She told you that?" he asked.

"Well, she was a bit stressed out at the time. I doubt she would have told me if she wasn't a nervous blabber.

"Still, she tends to keep those types of things close to her chest. She must like you." He paused, a strange pinched expression crossing his face. "River Song and a Lethbridge-Stewart on good terms: the universe shudders at the thought." He turned to push open the door he'd stopped in front of. "Or at least I do," he mumbled under his breath.

She chose to ignore that comment in favor of looking around the room that had just been revealed to her. It almost seemed like a mixture of her childhood bedroom and the one she had now. The bed looked the same as the one she usually slept in (when she actually made it home for the night) but there were a few extra pillows at the top that matched the comforter and a blanket that looked like the one her mother had had was folded up at the end of the bed. The room shape was like her bedroom from when she was 8, but a bit bigger, and the walls were beige instead of bright purple. There was a wooden toy trunk that her father gave her when she was younger and at home was in her son's old room. She picked up the book on the nightstand to find it was one she'd been reading laid open to the page she was on.

She looked up at him for an explanation. "The TARDIS created it from the image you projected when you thought of a bedroom," The Doctor explained, his tone a bit gentler than usual. "She must like you."

"Right. Sentient ship."

Her slight discomfort about that fact must have shown on her face. "She won't do anything to you," he assured her. "She likes you. Though," he added, "try not to make River very angry. She's her baby and while the TARDIS wouldn't hurt anyone you may end up wandering the halls, possibly naked, and occasionally in the middle of a rainstorm."

"Personal experience?"

"At least she let me stay on the TARDIS that time."

"She's kicked you out of your own spaceship?"

"I probably deserved it," he said with a shrug. "Anyway, there should be clothing in the wardrobe that's your size and the bathroom is through there. If you need to get to the kitchen, just walk through the halls, she'll help you find it."

"Thank you."

"I should probably get back to River now," he told her, rocking back on his heels.

"You probably should."

"Sleep well," he told her.

"Goodnight," she responded with a nod as he left the room.

River gave a little sigh of relief as the bruise cream The Doctor was rubbing on her back started to do its job. He'd pounced on her as soon as she got out of the shower (not in the fun way) and made her lay down on their bed (again, not in the fun way) so he could look at her injuries.

Most of the shallower cuts had completely healed by now due to her advanced healing abilities and the cut along the top of her back was only a thin, pink line. The cut on her leg, however, was still oozing blood. He'd fussed over it for a good 10 minutes, cleaning it and covering it with disinfectant (despite the fact that it would be healed before it had time to get infected) before wrapping it in gauze. He'd noticed her wrapped up ankle and rewrapped it with a type of bandage from the 62nd century that automatically iced it every 20 minutes (she'd tried to explain that it was almost healed anyway, but he'd insisted). Then, he'd moved onto rubbing bruise cream into any piece of skin that was even a bit discolored.

She relaxed into the bed and shifted around a bit to test her healing injuries. She hadn't bothered with putting on any cloths when she'd gotten out of the shower. He'd either not noticed or he was ignoring her. Either option was a distinct possibility with this body. Deciding to make it a bit more obvious, she wiggled around again. "Sweetie," she said meaningfully.

He paused at her tone, removing his hands from her back and leaning forward to press a kiss to the back of her neck. "No," he mumbled into her skin.

"But, sweetie," she complained.

He rolled off her onto his back. "You are injured."

"Just a little."

"A building fell on top of you."

"It was just a little building."

"River…"

"Orgasms relieve pain so, really, your medically obligated to…"

He poked her in the side. "Stop." She huffed and rolled her eyes. She felt him shift onto his side and turned her head to look at him. Oh no, he had his 'serious discussion' face on.

"Why were you being chased by the Silence?" There it was.

"I destroyed a good 95% of their operation."

"Oh, River," he sighed, "You didn't blow up a space station again, did you?"

She laughed. "That would have been a lot more fun, but not this time. Besides, they would never have known it was me if I just blew them all up."

He was unfortunately doing a tremendous job of keeping his eyes on her face. "What did you do?"

She bit her lip. "I was born a couple of months ago," she told him.

"That's certainly not true," he replied with a ghost of a smirk.

"No. I mean the year I'm in when I teach at Luna. The time where I live linearly. From that perspective, Demons Run happened a few months ago."

"And?"

"I don't have to worry about unraveling my own time stream anymore."

He searched her eyes for a moment, looking a touch worried. "What did you do?"

"You know that I've been working with the Intergalactic Union for the past few years to help redesign some of their policies." He nodded. "Well, I've made a few friends doing that. Some with quite a bit of power. When I realized that I'd just been born somewhere in the universe, I decided to talk to a few of them. I was vague; I didn't even tell them that The Silence had done anything to me personally, but they were horrified by the little I told them. They suggested that legal actions be taken against The Silence as a group if they were violating so many basic rights and said they'd help me if I could find someone to support what I said. I asked and Tasha Lem was willing to testify about what happened at Trenzalore. It was enough to convince the judicial council to consider the case. We took it public and a couple of people stepped forward. Apparently seeing someone stand against them convinced some of the others that The Silence had steamrolled over to come forward too. They thought it may have some traction since the person credited with saving those people at The Library was the main complainant.

"That was a very dangerous thing to do," The Doctor chided, but his tone was soft and full of pride.

"Well, the Silence tried to retaliate, of course, but they didn't manage to kill any of the witnesses. Then, the Lux Cooperation decided to offer protection to anyone who came forward." She let out an amused breath. "Lux finally got his chance to throw money at me in a way I'd accept so he was happy. With the backing of such an influential company and the promise of protection, the less brave victims stepped forward by droves. The Silence were officially excommunicated from the Church after it went public (which was long overdue if you ask me) and the clerics supplied the eyepatch technology to track down the rouge priests. With so much evidence, the Order of the Silence was declared a terrorist group and there are warrants out for every member's arrest."

He watched her for a moment, contemplating. "If you were so well guarded, how did you end up being chased through New York with the head of UNIT in the 21st century?" he asked.

She flashed him a grin. "I may have gotten bored."

"River," The Doctor sighed in exasperation.

"It was suffocating being guarded all the time. It was like being back in Stormcage, though I was in a mansion and the food was a lot better, but I digress. Anyway, I went on a little excursion to nick a necklace of a Permisian warlord when, suddenly, I was being shot at with lightning. They completely wrecked my vortex manipulator, probably would have ended up in a black hole if I didn't know how to direct time travel a bit. There may be a new time fracture where I landed, by the way."

"You really need to stop doing these things," he interjected.

"You're no fun," she commented idly, continuing her story. "I made quite a ruckus trying to land and UNIT found me. The Master (who's a woman by the way) had infiltrated UNIT and tried to blow Kate and I up."

"I already knew about the Master being a woman," he informed her.

"You knew?" she asked. "And you didn't think you should mention it to me?"

"…sorry?"

She gave him a look, but let it drop. "Anyway, I escaped using my Vortex Ripper."

"You have a Vortex Ripper? River, those are illegal! For a reason!"

"Oh, hush. I was able to direct the thing and get us on Earth a few centuries earlier. We found some students from Luna doing fieldwork and I was able to borrow a time hopper that took us to Manhattan. You pretty much know the rest."

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"You saw my injuries: nothing too serious," she responded.

"That's not what I meant." Of course it wasn't.

"I'm fine."

"River, we've talked about this hiding emotions thing."

She sighed. "I may have… underestimated how much the Silence could affect me when seeing them face to face," she admitted. "It's been hundreds of year since I last faced them overtly other than the one time we doubled back, but it was different with you and my parents there and them not knowing I was Melody Pond. I thought… I've laughed at things that should by all rights be more terrifying then them, but when it came down to it, I panicked.

The Doctor peered at her intently for a moment before reaching a hand up to cup her cheek. He leaned forward to give her a gentle, but thorough kiss.

Her eyes fluttered shut as she relaxed into the kiss, letting the feeling of his lips on hers warm her from the inside. None of the incarnations of her husband she'd met had been good at words of comfort. Grand speeches and detailed explanations of different societies he could do, but he was rubbish at small moments. Yet, this version, the one who had trouble with touch, sometimes even with her, and had a habit of saying crass things without even realizing it, was able to communicate deep understanding with such a small gesture.

"You're very brave, River," he told her, pressing one last kiss to her lips before drawing away.

"Am I?" she asked skeptically, a sardonic curl to her lips. She couldn't help but think back to the hotel and how she'd felt before Kate had snapped her out of her little breakdown.

"Yes," he replied firmly, almost scoldingly. The Silence have been stomping through the timelines unchallenged for far too long because everyone else was too scared to stand up to them. Until you."

She smiled a bit and turned her head to press a kiss to his hand. "I finally won, didn't I?" she asked.

"It sound like it."

"No, but, I really won," she said with a contemplative smile. "I didn't just destroy them by bombing them or shooting them like they taught me to destroy things. They tried to make me a psychopathic killer, but I was able to take them down with the public support I gained from saving thousands of lives. I was supposed to be an apathetic tool that thought of nothing but the mission I was given, but I had support from friends I had met because I'm the leading mind in my field. I actually, truly, won."

He smiled at her, not the toothy, almost frighteningly large one he sometimes gave people, but the soft one he would give to her when she first woke up in the morning or when she'd accidently took a sip of his tea and proceeded to lecture him about controlling his sugar intake.

She grinned back and leaned over to kiss him. He didn't resist when she nudged him onto his back and straddle his waist. It wasn't until she had completely undone his white undershirt and was shoving it off his shoulders that he remembered himself.

"Wait. No. Injured," he said, ripping his mouth from hers despite the fact that she was sitting on proof that he wanted her too.

She huffed, sitting up to glare down at him, purposely sifting her weight to make him squirm. "I'm completely naked and on top of you and all you can think about it a little cut on my leg?"

He scowled back at her, all Scottish and stubborn (which did nothing to help calm her libido, thank you very much). "Yes," he replied firmly.

She thought for a moment before giving him the doe eyed look that always sent his last body into a tizzy as he tripped over himself to do her bidding. "Sweetie," she cajoled, "my physical injuries aren't that bad and are healing, but the emotional trauma from the last few days is a lot worse. I need comfort. Please comfort me in the way only you can."

"You're manipulating me," he pointed out, but she could see it in his eyes that he was about to give in.

She dropped her voice and leaned forward to speak in his ear. "Is it working?" she asked huskily.

He gave a groan of defeat. "How's your back?" he asked.

"Completely healed," she answered happily.

"Good," he state, gently guiding her onto her back. "Because you are doing absolutely none of the work, understand?"

"Hmm, perhaps I should come to you injured more often," she said.

He gave her an exaggerated eye roll and cut off her laughter with a kiss.

 **AN: So there will probably only be two more chapters of this story. I'd like to do an epilogue or two, but I don't have any ideas. Is there anything you guys would want to see? Again, I'm not sure how fast it's going to come, but it'll get finished.**


	7. Breakfast Conversations

**AN:** **Yes, so sorry about the time gap between updates. I decided to just go ahead and finish it and upload the last two chapters together.**

18 hours. Clara Oswald had not seen hide nor hair of her Timelord friend nor his wife (whom was presumably with him) in 18 hours. She hated when they did this. "This" being completely forgetting she existed.

She sighed, checking on the croissants in the oven to see how they were coming along before shutting off the whistling kettle and pouring hot water into her teapot.

Turning around at the sound of footsteps, Clara expected to see The Doctor or River in the doorway coming to get some breakfast, but it was neither of them. "Kate," she said a bit surprised at seeing the woman in the TARDIS.

"Hello?" Kate said looking taken aback by the greeting.

Clara's eyebrows creased in confusing for a moment before realization dawned. "You don't know me," she said. "Time travel is so weird. I'm Clara Oswald. Want some tea?"

"Uh, nice to meet you Clara," she said recovering rather quickly. Clara guessed a stranger knowing her name couldn't be the weirdest thing that had ever happened to the leader of UNIT. "I would like some tea, yes, thank you."

Clara grinned at her and reached over to grab another mug out of the cupboard before filling hers and Kate's. "I'm baking croissants right now, you're welcome to one when they're done," she told her, setting Kate's mug in front of a chair. Clara took the seat opposite of it as Kate sat down.

"That would be nice. I actually don't know how long it's been since I ate anything." She glanced around the kitchen. "I honestly never thought about the TARDIS having a kitchen," she confided.

"Well, we usually eat out instead, but since I haven't seen anyone in hours, I had to fend for myself," she let some of her annoyance slip into her tone. Then she paused for a moment, thinking. "Wait, did you come in with River then?"

"She shoved me off a building and we landed in the pool," Kate replied deadpan.

Clara snorted a bit shaking her head. "That is something River would do." The conversation she'd had with The Doctor before being sent off to bed like a child whose parents wanted some alone time popped into her head. "I bet you being there put a damper on The Doctor's plans for the evening," she giggled. Served him right.

"What do you mean?" Kate asked.

"Well, he did make _me_ leave the console room," she informed Kate with a smirk.

Kate looked at her strangely for a moment before changing the topic. "So I'm guessing you travel with The Doctor quite a bit then," she stated.

"Yeah, though, not as much as I know some other people have. I'm an English teacher, so I've got to get home before I forget my student's names."

"Really? What does he do when you're not with him. I understand he has trouble figuring out what to do with himself without an audience."

"I don't ask, but I assume he does whatever he's been doing with River for the past 18 hours."

"I'd assumed they were sleeping," Kate said slowly.

"Oh, please, River sleeps about 5 hours a week and The Doctor even less than that."

"She was injured though," Kate said with a frown, as though injury would stop River Song, "and River did say we should all go to bed." Clara raised her eyebrows and waited expectantly for a few seconds. She saw the moment Kate figured it out. "No. Really?" she asked looking a bit stunned, not that Clara blamed her.

"Really," Clara confirmed. "I've had the misfortune of walking in on them." She shuddered a bit at the memory.

"But, I thought The Doctor didn't… Everyone who's worked with him says he never does that sort of thing."

"I thought so too," Clara said. "I mean, when he showed up to my family Christmas naked and didn't understand that may be an issue, I'd assumed he'd had no concept of anything sex related. Like, maybe Timelords were different or something, but then River shows up and suddenly I was learning the hard way to knock on the library door every time I want a book."

"That's weird," Kate said and Clara had to agree with her summary of the situation.

"It's like watching your grandfather and your step-mother going at it," Clara said.

Kate's nose screwed up a bit at the metaphor. "Wait," she said after a moment, "I thought she was Amy Pond's daughter."

"Yeah."

"How did that happen if…"

"You know, I'm not completely sure," Clara responded, contemplating. "All I really know is the bit they've let slip and my own wild speculation. I mean, they are both time travelers so, from what I understand, he hadn't even met her parents when he met her. So, he didn't know she was his friends daughter for the entire beginning of their relationship. Once he'd met Amy and Rory, he took them on a trip on their wedding night and, well, River happened while they were in the time vortex, which altered her DNA. Some people known as The Silence kidnapped Amy and somehow managed to modify her DNA even more, which make her part Timelord. I'm not sure what all happened, but River ended up being raised to kill The Doctor. And, she did, actually, a couple of times if you can believe their bickering. Not quite sure how they worked all of that out…" she scrunched her nose up a bit. "Anyway, at some point they got married."

Kate almost choked on her tea. "I'm sorry, married?"

"Yeah, it's really weird actually. Alone, both of them seem like they'd be horrible with any relationship that involved any type of commitment at all. But, you put them together and suddenly he's cooking breakfast that doesn't try to eat us first, she's fixing his tie, and they're arguing over how to drive the TARDIS."

"Wait," Kate said still hung up on it. "They're actually, legitimately married."

"As far as I know, yes," Clara confirmed. "They even renewed their vows a couple of months ago and had a 'real traditional Gallifreyan ceremony since the last one was a war zone version'"

"That's actually stranger than the sex thing. I can see River having sex with someone, but I can't see either of them marrying anyone."

Clara nodded. "I know what you mean," she said just as the timer on the oven went off. She got up to grab the croissants out of the oven.

It took about 20 minutes for Kate to finish her breakfast. The Doctor's companion, Clara, was still sipping on her tea when Kate decided she needed to get down to business. "So. I need to talk to River and The Doctor soon. How can I find them?" She'd been exhausted and emotionally strung out from the events of the previous day when The Doctor took her to a bedroom. Thus, she'd forgotten to mention what was going on with UNIT and Missy. Despite the fact that there were few time constraints on the TARDIS, now that she'd had a nights rest and time to sort out her thoughts, she was eager to resolve the problem. Hopefully, The Doctor would be willing to help her sort it all out.

"Well, if they're ready to show their faces, they'll probably be in River's study," Clara informed her. Kate wasn't even surprised at this point that she had her own study in the TARDIS. "I can't exactly give you directions for sure, but usually you can find it if you go out of this kitchen and then take the first left. They like being near enough to the kitchen for tea and such. It's a dark blue door."

"What if I can't find it?" Kate asked, not enthused at the idea of wandering around an infinite time ship searching for a room that may not even be there.

"Then you don't want to find them. Trust me." Clara wrinkled her nose a bit. "If the door's not there come back and we can wait for them to wear themselves out together."

"Alright," she stood up and looked at Clara, "What are the chances that they will be in a position to talk to me by now?"

"Well, they've had 18 hours to do their thing, so," she shrugged, "I'd say about 60-40 odds, not in your favor."

Great so chances are she was either not going to find them or walk in on them screwing. "If I can't find them, I'll be back in a few minutes," she told Clara.

Kate left the kitchen and followed Clara's directions. After she took the left turn, she saw a blue door at the end of the hallway. When she got closer, she realized that the door wasn't completely closed, but cracked open just a bit. Kate hesitated, recalling the fact that the TARDIS had apparently allowed Clara to walk in on them before.

She stared at the door, leerily for a moment. She should knock. Give them time to put themselves together if necessary. But… then she'd only have the chance to see them together in the way they wanted to present themselves to her. If only the door had been closed. Then, she wouldn't have even thought to look in on them. She could be scarred for life if she did this, but Kate had not become a scientist without a dangerous amount of curiosity and she had certainly not become the head of UNIT without being a risk taker.

Decision made, she moved so she could see through the cracked door, tilting her head and crouching down a bit.

They were on a couch that was mostly in her field of vision, luckily not having sex at the moment. Yet, the way they were pressed up against each other gave credit to the nature of their relationship as Clara had described it. It wasn't a particularly sexual position, but clearly intimate. Cuddly wasn't a word Kate would have ever thought would describe River Song. The closest she'd seen the woman get to soft was around the archeology students and Professor Kumar. Yet, those interactions had still been guarded and there'd been a certain level of professional distance. Even with Professor Kumar, whom she'd obviously known personally.

Yet, here, in her own study in the TARDIS, with the man who was apparently her husband, she was relaxed, curled up into his side with her cheek resting on his shoulder.

The doctor was more relaxed too, a face that seemed designed only for scowling lighter in some way. One of his arms disappeared behind River and the other brought a mug to his mouth every so often. He bent down to murmur something into River's hair. She gave a slight smile and said something in response that caused The Doctor to poke her in the side before kissing the top of her head.

Kate drew back feeling just a bit guilty for looking, but shook it off.

She knocked on the door. There was a moment's paused before River called for her to come in. By the time Kate opened the door, the two occupants of the study were carefully separated. River had moved her feet from the couch to the floor and was no longer quite as relaxed, but she was smiling at her in welcome. The Doctor now had both hands on his cup of tea and was frowning into it a bit sullenly.

"Good morning, Kate," River said.

"Hi. Clara told me where to find you. I hope you're not busy," Kate said.

"Clara's onboard?" River asked. "Sweetie, did you let us abandon Clara to the TARDIS again?"

He grunted a bit in response. "She can handle herself."

River rolled her eyes, but then focused back on Kate. "How was your night's sleep?"

"Fine. Eventually." She'd had a hard time drifting off after everything that had happened. The TARDIS suddenly playing music for her in the middle of the night had been a nice gesture, but had only served to remind her that she was trying to sleep in a sentient ship that could read her mind. She'd finally fallen asleep sitting up, halfway through her second book. "How was your night's… how was your night?"

The Doctor scowled a bit at her wording, probably figuring out what Clara had divulged to her about their relationship. River just smiled. "Oh, it was _very_ pleasurable, thank you for asking," she said.

The Doctor almost spilled his tea all over himself. "Well that's enough small talk. I hate small talk. Very boring. We should talk about Missy." He slammed down the cup of tea with a decisive bang.

River looked at him, amused and obviously pleased with herself. Kate decided to interrupt any comments the woman may be thinking up that would take the conversation off track.

"You're right. We need a plan to capture Missy without letting her destroy anything."

"Yes, well, all we need to do is find the dooms day device, deactivate it, and then capture Missy."

Kate waited a moment. "Is that your entire plan?"

"Do we need anything else?" He asked with a frown.

"Dad wasn't exaggerating about the lack of a plan thing."

River rolled her eyes. "We'll hash out the finer details," she said. "In the meantime, would your Osgood friend be able to hack into the UNIT security system?"

"Blindfolded."

"Right then. If she'll do that we'll be able to sneak into the Black Archives."

"What if Missy is already there herself?"

"That's where our trump card comes in," she pointed her thumb at The Doctor and then looked at him. "Don't get a big head. It's just because you're supposed to be dead."

The Doctor looked somewhat affronted, but more amused. Apparently, death was a running joke between the two of them.

"And you'll be the bait then?" he asked.

"Well, I'm so good at it." She tossed her hair a bit.

"A Venus Flytrap."

"Hmmm. Maybe your Venus Flytrap" River responded meeting his eyes and Kate suddenly had the feeling that she was about to be forgotten about.

"I'll go call Osgood. Where's the phone and when do you want the cameras down?"

"Try for about half an hour after the phone call from the coffee shop," River told her. "Just use the phone in the console room. The TARDIS will make sure you call the right time zone. We'll meet you there in a few minutes.

They hadn't moved any closer or changed their posture much at all during the discussion, but, even so, as Kate left the room, she couldn't help but wonder how long a couple of minutes would end up being.

Osgood had only just put her phone in her pocket and was about to leave the room when her phone rang again. She grabbed the device out of her pocket. It wasn't the same number Kate had just called her from, nor was it one she recognized. It had far too many digits for a normal phone number.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Me again," Kate said. "How long has it been for you since the last call?"

"About five seconds. What phone are you calling from? It's a weird number."

"I imagine it would be. I'm phoning from the TARDIS. Do me a favor and save that number."

"The TARDIS, TARIDS?" Osgood asked.

"Yeah, long story, but it turns out The Doctor isn't nearly as dead as Harkness' records indicated."

"Really? That's great, Kate."

"I don't think my family tree will ever be rid of him," she said, but Osgood knew that she was happy he wasn't dead. "Well, obviously I don't need that plane ticket now. Unless, of course, The Doctor lands in the wrong place, which isn't exactly impossible from what I hear, but I'll hope for the best."

"Is cancelling your plan ticket all you're calling me for or...?"

"Hmm. Remember when you broke into UNIT's security system with my father's old laptop and a floppy disk?"

Osgood groaned at the memory. "Yes."

"Think you could do that again with a more updated computer?"

"When do you need it by?"

"About half an hour from now. Take down the cameras inside and outside of the Black Archives."

"You still owe me dinner and wine."

"Done," Kate said with a chuckle.


	8. Distractions

The alarms in the Black Archives blared loudly as a group of soldiers raced through the shelves to the place where the alarm had been tripped. Osgood had turned off the security cameras about 20 minutes ago and no one had noticed until a security alarm protecting one of the objects in the Archive had been activated. Since Kate knew where every alarm would be, Osgood imagined that tripping it had been part of the plan. At least she hoped so.

Osgood had met up with the group of soldiers and Missy when she got to the door of the Black Archives. Now, she trailed behind the soldiers and Missy as they turned a corner. A woman, River Song, Osgood inferred from the curly hair, was standing in front of a partially dissected machine with her back to them. She didn't stop working at their approach despite the amount of noise they were making.

"Freeze!" The leader of the soldiers yelled. Song paused. "Put down the screwdriver and turn around slowly with your hands raised." She calmly set the tool down and turned around, a small smile on her face.

"Can I help you?" she asked sweetly while surveying the dozen or so guns pointed at her head.

"Um," the solider said a bit rankled by her blasé attitude, but shook it off to ask, "What are you doing here?"

"Just taking a look around. You guys have a lot of fun toys here."

"That's River Song," Missy pipped up from behind the soldiers. "She's the one who set off the explosion," Missy accused. "You should shoot her."

The soldiers may have actually been thinking about it, but Song spoke. "Now wait. That would be quite rude considering I brought you a nice present as a peace offering."

Osgood watched Missy as she considered this. "What present?" she asked.

"Not for you," Song spat with a toothy smile, "for the guys and girls with the guns. What's UNIT's policy on bargaining for the return of its leader, Kate Stewart? I take micro-explosives, time travel devices, and peanut M&Ms as payment."

There was sudden tension in the air. The soldiers tensed and a few at the back sifted restlessly. The group of soldiers weren't high on the chain of command. They'd been dispatched to arrest or shoot at things, not negotiate. They probably didn't even know that the policy was not to bargain with people that threatened the Earth even if it was for the life of their leader.

"How, how do we know she's really alive?" asked the soldier in the front.

"Oh, well that's easy enough," Song shrugged and it was then that Kate walked around the corner. Osgood couldn't help but give a sigh of relief despite the fact that she'd already known Kate was alive. It was still nice to see her in person, to know she was actually okay.

"You're not getting M&Ms," Kate said strolling up to Song's side.

"So I guess that means I am getting the explosives. Great! I was almost out." Kate ignored her.

"That is obviously an imposter," Missy insisted. "Why would Ms. Stewart be working with the murderer who blew up UNIT's building?" The soldiers didn't seem to know what to do with this development.

"Because River Song didn't blow up the building," Osgood spoke up. "You did, at least according to Officer Cisse who survived the explosion. Which makes sense considering you walked out of a collapsing building with no injuries whatsoever."

Missy looked over at her, obviously surprised. "Ooo, now that is a surprise poppet." She bared her teeth. "I'll be sure to remember you."

The soldiers seemed to take Osgood's words and Kate's presence as enough proof that Missy was the enemy. The dozen guns were now pointed at Missy. The woman sighed. "Well this is an unfortunate turn of events," she said, but didn't seem quite as concerned as she should be. "I do have to admit. I am quite impressed. Everyone worked together like big girls. You snuck into your own high security archives without me even realizing it for quite a while. And you got all the guns to listen to you. Very well done. Like I said, I'm very impressed. Just one itsy bitsy problem with you little plan. That," she pointed to the partially taken apart machine River and Kate were standing in front of, "is basically an intergalactic fax machine.

Kate blinked at the device in surprise, probably because no one at UNIT had been able to figure out what it was and had believed it was some type of weapon, but Song appeared unfazed. "Oh, I know that," she laughed as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I'm an archeologist. I know all about the technology from this time period, terrestrial or otherwise." The smile slipped off Missy's face when Song winked at her. "You see, we were the distraction." She looked over her shoulder. "Got it Sweetie?!" she called.

"Got it!" A man called back. His head popped up from behind the railing on the little balcony. That must be The Doctor. Osgood didn't recognize his face from the records. It must be a new one. "Clara was not happy when I brought a gravity bomb into the console room even if it was deactivated. You'll have to talk her down; she was already mad at me for sending her off to bed yesterday without dinner."

"See there's a bit of a security problem with UNIT," Song told Missy. "If one alarms is tripped, everyone goes blasting in full force. Problem is, no one is around to see the second alarm go off. You should really get on that, Kate."

Missy was staring at River, assumedly having come to the same conclusion as Osgood about the identity of the man. Osgood couldn't tell if she was angry with River, impressed, or both. "I should have guessed." River blew a kiss at her.

"Arrest her," Kate commanded. The woman didn't resist, letting the soldiers take her arms. Osgood was a bit worried about that. The woman kept her eyes on River a few more moments as the soldiers led her away.

"Well, she's going to try to kill me at the first opportunity," Song commented to Kate. She didn't seem too worried about that fact.

Osgood walked through the remaining soldiers who were standing around, unsure of what to do with themselves now. "You're nose is bruised," was the first thing out of her mouth.

Kate touched the injury. "I was in an explosion," she pointed out, "could have been a lot worse."

"We'll have to put some ice on it," she said.

"Yes, ma'am," Kate replied sarcastically and Osgood smiled a bit.

"You must be Osgood," River said, extending her hand. "I'm River Song."

"I've seen your picture in your files, though some of the information in those seems to a bit inaccurate," Osgood said taking the offered hand.

River laughed. "Only about a few things," she informed her. "I've actually heard a bit about you, but I didn't realize how…"

And Osgood must have missed something, a tone change or piece of body language, because Kate suddenly said, "No." River withdrew her hand with a sly smile.

"So," River said, turning to Kate. "Am I free to go or are you planning on drugging me again?"

"That depends. Will you bite me again if I do?"

"Probably."

Kate's lips twitched. "Well in that case, I guess you're free to go."

River smiled, offering her hand to Kate this time. "It was nice to meet you Kate Stewart. We'll have to go out for drinks some time," she said releasing her and taking a few steps back. "The stories don't do you justice."

"There're stories?" Kate asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

River tapped a finger to her lips. "Spoilers," she said and then there was a loud sound of gears grinding as a blue box surrounded her. It never truly gained form, but when it disappear completely, River was gone.

Kate sighed. "This room is supposed to be TARDIS proof." She rubbed her forehead. "We'll work on it tomorrow. How far away is tomorrow?"

"About 25 minutes ago," Osgood answered.

Kate groaned. "Well, nothing for it now. Have you eaten?" She didn't give Osgood time to answer. "Who am I kidding, of course you haven't. I guess it's time for me to keep that promise of dinner and wine."

"Kate, it's 12:25am. No restaurants are open," she reminded her boss.

"Right," she shook her head, "well it'll have to be the leftover pizza in my refrigerator and beer for now. That good?" She offered her arm.

"If I can avoid the mounds of paperwork that we're going to have to do about today for a couple more hours, it sound perfect," Osgood said linking her arm with Kate's.

 **AN:** **Thanks for reading. I will have to go back and edit a few things including the times and things people have pointed out to me throughout. I may add an epilogue at some point, but for the most part this is finished. I hope you enjoyed it. :)**


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